Abstract

PIQUE, Pilar. The Concepts of Value and "Early and Rude society" in the Work of Adam Smith. Apuntes del Cenes [online]. 2018, vol.37, n.66, pp.15-38. ISSN 0120-3053.  https://doi.org/10.19053/01203053.v37.n66.2019.7691.

The work has two main objectives. First, to synthesize the recent debates in the historiography of economic thought about the notions of "Value" and "Early and Rude Society" in The Wealth of Nations. Secondly, to propose a reinterpretation of the role that Adam Smith assigns to these two notions. The work will reconstruct the main arguments of specialized literature and compare them with those resulting from a re-reading of the problem in the light of the nature of the philosophical project of its author. Two main conclusions will be reached: 1) that most historians of economic thought disdained Smithian Value fiction in a "Early and Rude Society" because they considered it either as an historical anachronism or as a too "abstract" fiction; 2) that, from a re-reading of the nature of Adam Smith's philosophical project, Value in a "Early and Rude Society" can be understood as a relevant analytical fiction to forge a universal law of value.

Keywords : historiography; political economy; price; philosophy; economic theory.

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