ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to reassess the theoretical links between Hegel and J.Steuart in their analyses of the social structuring of the market economy.1 We know from Rosenkranz (1844:85) that Hegel devoted three months’ careful study to Steuart’s An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Œconomy, which was published in London in 1767 and translated into German in two editions, and that his various economic and social observations on the Scottish author’s principal work were published in a Commentary that has now been lost. There is no other explicit reference to James Steuart in Hegel’s work, whereas Smith is mentioned twice, first in his analyses of the division of labour and second with J.B.Say and Ricardo in the famous passage in the Philosophy of Right that celebrates political economy (die Staatsökonomie). Beyond this absence of explicit references, the question of any parallels between the two thinkers remains open. Thus Chamley (1963, 1965b) stresses the decisive influence of Steuart in the general development of Hegel’s political philosophy, while others (Fradin 1993) suggest that his influence made itself felt more specifically in Hegel’s analysis of the relationships between the State and civil society, with Steuart’s statesman seeming to foreshadow Hegel’s rational State. For Ritter (1970), the originality of Hegel’s economic thinking lies rather in his critique of classical political economy, and he considers Steuart’s influence to have been relatively unimportant.
