SMITH,ADAM - NATURAL THEOLOGY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR HIS METHOD OF SOCIAL INQUIRY

This paper sees a systematic unity between Smith's theological view an d scientific study of society. Smith's theological outlook as to a ben evolent deity is grasped as a metaphysical doctrine in his system of s ocial science. It arises from the fact that while Smith's opinion conc erning God's attributes is established, in the first instance, on the basis of his empirical study of nature, it also stands irrespective of other facts which are not in line with the patterns of order and desi gn. Smith's metaphysical proposition as such is methodologically sugge stive in that it proposes theoretical possibilities for progress and h armony and rules out the features of conflict at the analytic level. T his implies a difficulty in subscribing to a conventional interpretati on that introduces the '' two Smiths '' view (the duality of his metho d and vision).