ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: ADAM SMITH ECONOMICS AND THE LECTURES ON RHETORIC AND BELLES LETTRES: THE LANGUAGE OF EXCHANGE
Author: WALRAEVENS Benoit
Inside the profuse literature on Adam Smith a relative lack of interest for the Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres subsists. The aim of this paper is to reinterpret some economic and moral matters in the light of this work. More precisely, we will try to highlight the relationship between discursive practice and economic reality in its apparent simplicity: the exchange. According to Smith the essence and foundation of exchange and commerce lie in the language. We will use the dichotomy he establishes between two main types of discourse: the rhetorical discourse and the didactic discourse, in order to bring a renewed approach of exchange relations. More precisely, the didactic discourse is described as a discourse aiming at truth whereas the rhetorical one obeys a strictly instrumental logic, aiming at reaching an end and persuading by every means. The latter reveals the social and human dimension of exchange relations. Economics is “political economy” in the sense that in parallel with the relations of men to things it studies the relations between men themselves. Therefore, we will go into detail the study of exchange relationships as social and domination relationships thanks to a questioning of this concept and its practical applicability to the Wealth of Nations. In the first part of our work we will focus on the persuasive side of exchange. The individuals who exchange are rhetoricians who try to persuade the others it is their interest to exchange. The rhetorician is typically the person who plaids a cause, who hoodwinks and chisels his audience. He does not treat impartially the topic he develops. This is the malevolent side of exchange which is revealed. Every mean is justified, including cunning and cheating, lie and information dissimulation, to persuade someone it is his or her interest to exchange. As a consequence, the morality of exchange relations comes into sight. The second part of this work is dedicated to the study of an example we find in the Wealth of Nations: this is the wage relationship. Indeed, we think possible to discern a rhetorical discourse and a didactic one on the wage relationship in the Wealth of Nations. The rhetorical discourse on this point emerges from the necessary partial point of view of workers and capital owners and so it reveals an antagonism between the two classes. Nonetheless, by adopting an impartial point of view, namely the one of the philosopher, Smith shows that workers and capital owners’ personal interests could finally converge into a virtuous circle of growth.
Registred web users only can download this paper - Go back
Please note that files available for download have not been checked for viruses. These files have been submitted by authors of the conference to this web site. Conference organisers can't accept any responsibility for damages caused to users by downloading such files.