ABSTRACT

David Hume has long been regarded as one of the most remarkable predecessors of Adam Smith in his economic liberalism. This general historical estimation still survives, but with some serious reservations. First, systematic study of Hume’s thought has led to a widely shared view that Hume’s economic thought ought to be understood as an essential part of what he called ‘the Science of Man’ and that he never intended to establish any autonomous scientific discipline to be labelled ‘economics’.1 Second, the place of Smith as the founder of economic science is being seriously challenged. It is now widely believed by scholars of Smith and the Scottish Enlightenment that Smith himself should be placed back into the philosophical, political and ideological contexts of his day and be examined in his own right and not merely as the founder of the bourgeois science of economics. Should this be the case, the sense in which to claim that Hume was one of Smith’s most important predecessors must be revised accordingly.2