ADAM SMITH’S PLURALISM AND THE SCIENCE OF THE LEGISLATOR

It is well established that we can make sense of Adam Smith’s multi-faceted account of human agency without incurring “das Adam Smith-Problem”. However, the relevance of his view of knowledge and agency for political economy as science of the legislator deserves to be studied more carefully. Smith’s view of human agency is linked to political realism and pragmatic pluralism, emphasizing the benefits of the knowledge made available by scientific “systems”, but also their limitations and incompleteness. Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, seen together with his realist discussions of mercantilist politics are suggesting explanatory and pragmatic advantages of such pluralism, while opening up horizons of problem-responsive second-best reforms avoiding fallacies of “the man of system”.