The Classical Political Economy As The Natural Jurisprudence

There are very close links between the emergence of classical political economy and Scottish Enlightenment in the eighteenth-century. On the one hand, economics has tendency of de-moralization and tend to get more and more scientific and theoretic since nineteenth-century, the elements of ethics and jurisprudence to classic political economy have been ignored with the development of economics scientism and empiricism till today. On the other hand, however, self-satisfied economic hypotheses without the foundation on ethics, law and psychology still haven’t come into being, and if economics can’t face to the moral dilemma, what difficulties could it deal with? While we oppugn and criticize the moral absence of economics and its departure from the real world, we should trace back to the development of economics, and give reflections of all kinds of problems that those Scottish thinkers had discussed and debated in eighteenth-century, which is the age for the emergence and formation of classical political economy, and finally, to seek for the possibility of re-thinking economics by exploring the important theories which the classical economists, such as David Hume, Adam Smith, explained in their major works.In fact, the formation of classical political economy involved, at least, other two important resources besides economic thought:natural law prevailed in European continent17th to18th century, and British moral philosophy. However, the arguments and opinions haven’t attained corresponding regards and studies for a long time. For this reason, This doctoral thesis attempts to do some research on natural jurisprudence and re-read the books of Gershom Carmichael, Francis Hutcheson, and David Hume in this discourse. It is believed that the political economy suggested by Adam Smith is a doctrine based on the human science, and his economic theory is deeply implanted in the context of moral philosophy and jurisprudence; it is upon this whole system that Smith interprets the economic, political and social problems by the theory of sympathy--for Smith,"propriety" is a key word. Only in the context of Scottish Enlightenment to interpret Smith, can we fully understand what unique and creative contributions Smith and his contemporary made in the times of social transition,which is also good to better understand or grasp the essence and clues of Smith’s works, especially his jobs, i.e. links between political economy and moral philosophy.This discourse consists of seven chapters. Chapter One, the Introduction, comments the status quo of studies of Adam Smith and Scottish Enlightenment by the scholars abroad and home. It is pointed out that it’s necessary and important to study Smith’s political economy from the perspective of natural jurisprudence, and then, the basic thoughts are put forwarded for this researchChapter Two describes the formation of Scottish natural jurisprudence and the transmission of natural law in Scotland, and illustrates the sequence of thought from S. Pufendorf, G. Carmichael to F. Hutcheson. Carmichael is the first one who introduced natural law into moral philosophy during the combination of them, and began to teach natural jurisprudence in Scotland. Hutcheson, who followed Carmichael and carried on this subject, reconciled the civic virtue for natural rights, and gave reflections of economic matters in the frame of natural law of Pufendorf. All this is very significant for the formation of Smith’s economic thought.Chapter Three discusses Hume’s thought on natural law, and puts emphasis on his criticism. Hume argued definitely that man hadn’t had the natural "virtual" sociability, rights and duties didn’t derive from nature, nor the intrinsic moral sense, but the consequences of custom. For Hume, utility is the reason why natural justice happened, and utility is the mere resource of morality. This criticism on natural law by Hume results in a great change to Scottish sequences of natural jurisprudence, and influences Smith’s further reflections on the doctrine of natural law and the natural progress of civil society, which are represented in his political economy.Chapter Four analyses Smith’s moral philosophy. It is suggested that sympathy--to which "propriety" is crucial-is a starting point, and also a theoretic hypothesis that Smith applied to establish a different kind of natural jurisprudence and political economy. Upon reflecting and criticizing the doctrines of Hutcheson and Hume, Smith enriched Scottish natural jurisprudence and provided a proper sort of ethics to his political economy and the new rising commercial society. These ideas manifest the intellectual men’s reflections of the great social transition from traditional to commercial society. And propriety is the key to the all. Smith intended to prove how a commercial society could form and develop supported by propriety, and used this rule to give further interpretation of the operating mechanism of general social rules, included by the general rules of laws and governments which are just the topic of Wealth of Nations.Chapter Five is about Smith’s natural jurisprudence. It is asserted that Smith applied the doctrine of propriety in his moral philosophy to natural jurisprudence and political economy while he regarded commutative justice as negative virtue, and associated economic actions with laws through his re-examination of history. Either economic actions or the laws, are the social consequences, they are one part of social life which spectators judged. For the spectators, justice is proper laws and suitable to the society; justice is a guard to natural orders and human nature. On this account, for every man in the commercial society, as long as he does not violate the law of justice, should pursue the system of natural liberty; for the legislator, his duty is to maintain and promote this "distinct and simple" system; that is the theme of political economy.Chapter Six is on Smith’s political economy. It discusses Smith’s economic thought and finds the similar point between human nature and the nature of wealth. That point is, both of them are dominated by the rule of commutative justice. Smith abstracted a generalized economic mode from the real society by systematically describing the economic orders. This mode is always examined and regulated by placing it in the historical situations. At last, it has been proved that in the progress of economic development and the increase of wealth, the most propriety is to obey the rule of natural progress by overcoming the human prejudice. For Smith, a proper society is sympathetic one, and also an opulent one; its aim is the improvement and happiness of human being.At the end of this thesis, it discussed the Smith’s ideological change after the year1776. In his later years, Smith re-thought the relations between wealth and virtue and put more attention to the latter, and he emphasized a stoic self-command. In this connection, it is concluded that, what can protect economic safety and liberty and promote the increase of wealth and improvement of virtue is not laissez-faire but natural liberty. The conclusion helps think seriously of moral dilemma which modern economics involves. That’s the point which should be traced back to eighteenth-century, back to Adam Smith when we re-think modern economics.