Adam Smith and the Scottish historical school: Method, Epistemology & History

The Scottish historical school had produced a variety of intellectual figures that determined the progress of social sciences. Its legacy is crystallised in the justification of history’s importance in social disciplines. Adam Smith was the most eminent product of the Scottish historical school. His work, despite of being the locus classicus of classical political economy, has promoted a chemical symphysis between theory and history. Evidently, his Scottish roots determined the character of his epistemic choices. His philosophy of science, together with a clearly defined methodology assigned history as the raison d’ etre of his work. More specifically the acceptance of Newton’s analytic-synthetic method opens the door to history to become a congenital ingredient of his analysis. The smithian work produced a special conjunction between method, epistemology, theory, and history that determined the history of political economy