ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the views of the two thinkers, namely Ibn Khaldun and Adam Smith, with respect to the division of labor and the social and philosophical contexts that shaped their ideas. Group solidarity is vital for the production of crafts and provides the needed cooperation for the division of labor. Adam Smith shared with Ibn Khaldun the idea of the division of labor as fundamental to economic growth through the increase in productivity, especially of luxury goods. The humanistic side to Smith should be understood within the framework of his naturalistic theory of sympathy contained in his Theory of Moral Sentiments. Smith’s stoical attitude of self-restraint may be reconciled with religion at a philosophical but not pragmatic level. For Ibn Khaldun, social framework for cooperation is that of the tribe whether it is the Arab tribe or the Berber tribe.
