ABSTRACT
The teleology of Adam Smith's "unseen hand" must be appraised in terms of Darwinism; its optimism in the light of modern psychiatry. Specific doctrines will be discredited, yet something, perhaps of more value, will remain. Smith also had a considerable historical perspective, seeking for the roots things have in the past. Not all of Adam Smith's specific doctrines, of course, are direct attempts to puncture Mercantilist fallacies or to set up antitheses to them. Smith used genetic evidence, and it lent his system much of its strength. The theory of Moral Sentiments which traces its lineage most directly to Adam Smith has now reached that second stage of development in which it expresses the forces on which the prevailing order is consciously built. The modern economist who would follow the lead of Smith must be alert to new alignments of classes, to their conflicting interests and to the habits of mind and limitations of intelligence which they exhibit.
