The History Of Adam Smith, And The Wealth of Nations

Understanding Smith’s Moral Sentiments and the notion of the Invisible Hand

Adam Smith — Photo by Donovan Reeves on Unsplash

A core element of Adam Smith’s philosophy is the “Invisible Hand.”

The Invisible Hand metaphor, introduced by the 18th-century Scottish philosopher and economist Adam Smith, characterizes the mechanisms through which beneficial social and economic outcomes may arise from the accumulated self-interested actions of individuals, none of whom intends to bring about such outcomes.

The first appearance of the invisible hand in Smith’s work occurs in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) Part IV, Chapter 1. Here, Smith describes a selfish landlord as being led by an invisible hand to distribute his harvest to those who work for him:

This unfeeling and proud landlord views his extensive properties and fields, and without a thought for the wants of his brethren, in imagination, he consumes the entire harvest himself. Here the capacity of his stomach bears no proportion to the immensity of his desires. The rest of his holdings he will feel obliged to distribute…