ABSTRACT
This chapter claims that the ‘hand’ of the IH is God’s hand and provides support for the providentialist reading of the category. In this section, two theological functions of the IH are outlined. Firstly, it describes how unintended consequences occur as part of a providential plan: it is a principle – a theme – which runs through the corpus. This principle of intended consequences supports the natural theology of society which is an ethical theory also based on unintended consequences. If Smith has a natural theology of society guided by providence, and there is a generic principle of the IH which acts as a coherence theory, or at least a suite of observations of human nature, then it follows that the application of this IH principle of unintended consequences must also be implicated with the natural theology of society which drives these positive unintended consequences. If the Golden Rule of Christianity inspires in good measure the moral philosophy of Smith, and the positive unintended consequences it produces serve providential ends, then the IH notion of unintended consequences must be implicated with the great work of God’s immanent purpose in creation. The natural theology of society and the IH principle combine to fuse together Smith’s broad position that positive unintended consequences that flow from individual moral action serve the final divine end of human happiness and ground society as work of God’s creation. To the extent that the Golden Rule of Christianity is a fundamental principle that powers Smith’s ethics, the IH principle which evokes the immanent divine purpose implicated with this ethics will also be essentially an application of Smith’s Christian ethical position.
