NATURAL PROGRESS AND POLITICAL ACTION IN ADAM SMITH

Abstract

This text retakes the questions proposed by Maria das Graças de Souza concerning Jean-Jacques Rousseau and try to verify whether they apply or not to Adam Smith’s thought. According to the author, in Rousseau's thought there are two conceptions of historical time: one of them as determination (i.e., as decline); and the other as “opportune occasion”, i.e. the moment of political action. In Adam Smith, on the other hand, history does not appear as decline, but rather as a “natural progress”, and thus as determination. We try to show, however, that the author also sees the need for political action, albeit with many restrictions.