Adam Smith on Astronomy

The essay was published posthumously in 1795 in a volume entitled “Essays on philosophical subjects”. All subsequent references are to the Glasgow edition of the works and correspondence of Adam Smith: Essays on philosophical subjects, ed. by Wightman W. P. D. Bryce J. C. (Oxford, 1980).

References to the status of Smith as the founding father of modern economic analysis abound; a suitable example is offered by Bronowski J. Mazlish B. , The Western intellectual tradition , ch. 19 (London, 1960). Christie J. R. R. , “Adam Smith's metaphysics of language”, in Benjamin A. E. Cantor G. N. Christie J. R. R. (eds), The figural and the literal (Manchester, 1987) has noted that Smith's role as founding father of modern economic analysis has served to obscure his contribution to other academic areas.

Skinner A. S. , “Adam Smith: An aspect of modern economics?”, Scottish journal of political economy, xxvi (1979), 115, emphasis in original.

Ibid., 113, emphasis in original.

Ibid., 115, emphasis in original.

For a discussion of the Scottish Enlightenment tradition see Phillipson N. , “The Scottish Enlightenment”, in Porter R. Teich M. (eds), The Enlightenment in national context (Cambridge, 1981).

Skinner , op. cit. (ref. 3), 122.

The notion of ‘non-scientific’ is employed in preference to the more frequently encountered notion of ‘pre-scientific’, primarily because the latter formulation appears to imply an evolutionary sequence from one state of affairs to the other. This interpretation is not the one sought by the current analysis, which would wish to argue that there is no logical necessity for such an act of transformation, although there may be numerous practical imperatives.

This definition is influenced by the work of Kuhn T. S. , The structure of scientific revolutions (Chicago, 1970) and Lakatos I. , “Falsification and the methodology of scientific research programmes”, in Lakatos I. Musgrave A. (eds), Criticism and the growth of knowledge (Cambridge, 1970); both authors explicitly present the process of scientific debate in terms of the confrontation of rival theoretical schemes.

Smith A. , “History of astronomy”, III. 1, 48.

Ibid., III.2, 50.

Ibid., III.2, 49.

Horton R. , “African traditional thought and Western science”, Africa, xxxvii (1967): Part 1, 50–71; Part 2, 155–87.

Equilibrium notions were an important thematic of Smith's overall intellectual exercise; see Campbell T. , Seven theories of human society (Oxford, 1981).

Smith , “History of astronomy”, II.12, 45–46.

Horton , op. cit. (ref. 13), 59–60, emphasis in original.

Smith , “History of astronomy”, IV.19, 66. The machine analogy that informed this line of argument has been shown by Christie, op. cit. (ref. 2), 220, to be a recurrent theme of Smith's analytical system.

Horton , op. cit. (ref. 13), 52, emphasis in original.

Smith , “History of astronomy”, II.12, 47.

Horton , op. cit. (ref. 13), 64.

Smith , “History of astronomy”, III.3, 50.

Ibid., III.4, 51.

See Horton , op. cit. (ref. 13), 155.

Popper K. , “Conversation with Karl Popper”, in Magee B. (ed.), Modern British philosophy (St Albans, 1973), 96.

See Horton , op. cit. (ref. 13), 175–6.

Lakatos , op. cit. (ref. 9), introduced the notion of the protective belt around the hard core of a theory; this notion of the protective belt has strong similarities to Horton's description of theory immunization within African traditional thought.

See Smith , “History of astronomy”, III.4 & 5; Horton , op. cit. (ref. 13), 182.

Ibid., III.5, 51.

Horton , op. cit. (ref. 13), 180.

Ibid., 183.

Smith , “History of astronomy”, noted the influence of education and training on the scientific enterprise at several points — For example when discussing the publication of the Copernican system (IV.35, p. 76). This emphasis on the vital role of education in the scientific enterprise has strong links with the analysis of Kuhn, op. cit. (ref. 9).