Adam Smith and the Division of Labour among the Social Sciences

Adam Smith is one of the great founding figures of modern social science, in a larger sense than that conveyed by the popular perception of him as merely the founder of economics or political economy. He was aiming for a quite comprehensive social science, and while this grand project wasn't completed, substantial elements of it were. This paper is a reflection on Smith's conception of the sciences pertaining to human society and its relation to the modern demarcation of the social sciences. It affirms the integrity of political economy as a separable but not thereby ‘autonomous’ science, in Smith's understanding.