Adam Smith, realism and the urban economy

Abstract

This paper offers an overview of the existing literature on Smith and realism. Noting alignments drawn in the extant literature between Smith’s ‘History of Astronomy’ and The Theory of Moral Sentiments and critical realism in particular, the paper goes on to review whether further connections between Smith’s work and realism may be pointed to more broadly. In doing this, we also switch the starting point, and ask whether and in what form key foundations and principles of the realist literature may open up new perspectives on Smith’s work. The urban economy—which presents questions about how we identify causal mechanisms and the bases on which we can theorise about phenomena—is taken as a substantive domain for considering this interplay concerning Smith and realism.