Abstract
There is general consensus that in economics Adam Smith is, in the words of Jevons, the ‘father of the science’. In this setting it has regularly been argued that neoclassical and modern mainstream economics carry through the methodological impetus brought into the discipline by Smith. Moreover, economists conventionally take it for granted that Smith applied Newton’s method to political economy. Because Newton’s method is thought to be similar to that of modern mainstream economics, the association of Smith with Newton is taken to further bolster the claim that modern mainstream economics continues the Smithian tradition. Support for this commonly accepted view is gathered from Smith’s panegyric attitude to Newton’s conception of philosophy. This shared conviction among economists underpins some interpretations of the ‘invisible hand’ and of the intention behind the controversial chapter 7 of Book I of the WN, baptising Smith as a forerunner, if not the founder, of theories of general economic equilibrium (e.g. Robbins, 1962 [1932]; Schumpeter, 1994 [1954]; Arrow-Hahn, 1971; Jaffé, 1977; Hollander, 1973, 1987; Samuelson, 1977, 1992). As an offspring of the same tradition Walras, the architect of the ‘equilibrium system’, has been set alongside Newton, the discoverer of the ‘world system’ (Samuelson, 1952, p. 61).
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For example, Manuel’s iconoclastic Portrait of Sir Isaac Newton (1968) offers a Freudian account of Newton’s life, although sometimes it is overspeculative. In my view, Westfall’s Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (1980), is still the best and most objective biography of Newton. Andrade (1954), Hall (1992) and White (1998) are also worth reading.
Hypothesis is the Greek word for supposition. According to Koyré, ‘hypothesis’ became for Newton ‘toward the end of his life, one of those curious terms, such as “heresy”, that we never apply to ourselves, but only to others’ (1965, p. 52). His aversion to the word ‘hypothesis’ definitely began in 1672, when he published The New Theory of Light and Colours. Hooke considered Newton’s theory only a hypothesis and Huygens a ‘probable’ one. Newton’s reaction against the insistence upon this accusation is the reason for his General Scholium’s famous dictum hypothesis non fingo, and not the erroneously popular belief that in general he dismissed hypothesis (a belief that would certainly contradict his Opticks). Recently Hall, who earlier had declared that Newton was not an alchemist, has argued that ‘though Newton did not assert hypothesis as truths, he framed them throughout his life’ (Hall, 1998, p. 58). Although the famous phrase has been usually given as ‘I frame no hypothesis’, following Motte’s 1729 translation, it should be better translated as ‘I feign no hypothesis’ (Newton, 1999 [1687], p. 943), as has been convincingly argued by Koyré (1965, p. 35), because feign implies falsehood. On this, see also Cohen’s A Guide to Newton’s Principia (Newton, 1999 [1687], pp. 275–6).
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© 2004 Leonidas Montes
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Montes, L. (2004). Smith and Newton: Some Methodological Issues Concerning General Economic Equilibrium Theory. In: Adam Smith in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230504400_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230504400_5
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