David Hume, Adam Smith, and their inquiry concerning the viability of commercial society

Abstract

The article explores a problem that runs through the works of David Hume and Adam Smith: the viability of commercial society. Both Hume and Smith see with great enthusiasm the beneficial effects of the development of commerce. However, they are also aware of the challenges and dangers that the novel mercantile society posed. In this context, the question of the principles of human nature that could provide a foundation for the coherence and harmony of the new society occupies a central place in the intellectual projects of both authors. This question, which today, mutatis mutandis, is fully valid, is approached from different angles throughout their works: moral, political, economic, gnoseological. Indeed, we argue that political economy of the Scottish Enlightenment was born as part of a more ambitious effort to understand what held the new commercial society together.