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Title
Machines, bodies and invisible hands : metaphors of order and economic theory in Adam Smith / Stefano Fiori.
ISBN
9783030852061 (electronic bk.)
3030852067 (electronic bk.)
3030852059
9783030852054
Published
Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource
Item Number
10.1007/978-3-030-85206-1 doi
Call Number
HB83
Dewey Decimal Classification
330.092
Summary
What was Adam Smiths intellectual laboratory? How did his economic theory take shape? Were his metaphors of order only residual and ornamental expressions? This book answers these questions by analyzing the formation of the concepts of market and social order in Adam Smiths work, by considering various aspects of his approach. It analyzes how metaphors and pre-analytical concepts influenced Smiths theory. In line with studies that deal with the cognitive role of metaphors in science, this book suggests that in Smiths work metaphors provided a framework, on which basis the theory subsequently developed. Therefore, as such they were part of that intellectual process which made possible the formation of structured concepts. The content and scope of the book permits a more comprehensive interpretation of Smiths thought, in which many aspects of his work are taken into consideration in order to explain a crucial problem for Smith: the nature and causes of social and economic order. The book also shows that in general, formation of theories is a complex process that includes pre-analytical views as non-residual parts of inquiry. Stefano Fiori teaches economics in the Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis University of Torino, Italy. His research fields focus on the history of economic thought and on the connection between philosophy, economics, and other social sciences, viewed in historical perspective. His scientific interests include pre-classical and classical economics, Austrian economics, institutional and new institutional economics, economic methodology, and theories of bounded rationality.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Source of Description
Description based on print version record.
Chapter 1. Introduction
Part 1. Machines, Bodies, and Invisible Hands
Chapter 2. Metaphors as conceptual tools
Chapter 3. The metaphor of the machine
Chapter 4. Smith and the organic metaphors
Chapter 5. The invisible hand
Part 2. Visible and Invisible Orders: The Secrets of Organization
Chapter 6. Paradigms of Order in the Seventeenth Century: Intelligibility as Visibility
Chapter 7. The Invisible Order: Imagination, Nature, and the Economic Sphere
Chapter 8. Organization and Invisible Forces in the Life Sciences of the Late Eighteenth Century
Part 3. Forms and Experiences of Time
Chapter 9. Time and Social Order
Chapter 10. Conclusions.