Capitalism and Theology

The positing, by Smith, in order to reconcile the inadequacy of his concept of the parts of his system to its whole, of an Invisible Hand, blatantly violates the principles of his erstwhile Empiricism.  Instead, regardless of the traditional inattention to that methodological inconsistency, that positing is an patently an expression of faith in the existence of a deity.  Now, that his system entails this theological dimension suggests an explanation for the other enigma in his oeuvre: the relation between Egoism and Sympathy.  For, once it is recognized that the latter is a corporeal species instinct, while the former is a vestige of the principle of an incorporeal individual Soul seeking the preservation and happiness of Eternal Life, Smith's advocacy of Egoism becomes less perplexing.  That this theological legacy, in combination with Smith's methodological incoherence, remains generally ignored and unchallenged in Capitalism, only reinforces the Atomist resistance in the U. S. to a transition to Organicism that is proceeding much more smoothly elsewhere.