Adam Smith, David Hume & Joseph Addison

Adam Smith

Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a Scottish philosopher and economist who is best known as the author of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth Of Nations one of the most influential books ever written.

The old view of economics in Smith's day was that people saw national wealth in terms of a country’s stock of gold and silver. Importing goods from abroad was seen as damaging because it meant that this wealth must be given up to pay for them; exporting goods was seen as good as it allowed a trade to take place meaning that both countries would benefit. He also said that if you work for the King like Spain used to at this point everyone ends up ruined, whereas if you were converse meaning free from the state you could buy and sell alone which would allow you to end up wealthy.

This was emphasised by China who wouldn't trade with anyone and were left ruined once everything they had was gone. This reflects the materialist empiricist view that its not what you 'want' its what you 'need' and to get these needs you need to trade so that other countries can get richer too. The comparative advantage for England was to exchange education with oil from Arabia as they had a lot of it but no education. Spain disagreed with this as it believed that countries should have everything of their own and trading should not take place. Smith decided that human nature was like a clockwork system where God starts off the clocks and everyone trades to become wealthier unless someone intrudes which makes it all collapse. 

As Smith was the founder of economics he asked himself the question, Why is one country wealthier than another? It was concluded that they were blessed by God and that the other countries were just poor as they were devil believers so they were punished. It also was directly related to the idea of trading with other countries which enabled others to become more wealthier than the ones that did not trade.

David Hume

David Hume was also a Scottish philosopher known for his empiricism and skepticism. He had a similar style to Addison in the way that they were both witty writing with a very dry sense of humour. His man ideas were causation and illusion as he believed that there were no innate ideas. He said that angels are imagined by the mind which are made up from the idea of a human and a person. He said we use our five basic senses which are synthesised to combine ideas together where we then analyse them by taking them apart. He believed the human brains function was to build complicated ideas from basic physical sensations.

His idea of causation was that he believed the mind tricks itself into believing that one event causes another. He decided this was due to illusion and the habit of thinking. Using the idea of a white snooker ball that we will all say causes another ball to move, he said that this is not always a constant conjunction. We cannot say this is always the case as there is no evidence to say that it is the cause of another ball moving. His main theory known as Humes Law is summed up by the phrase 'you cannot derive an ought from an is'. This means that as there is no proof that they can cause each other it is down to the fact that our minds are always synthesising and reasoning with itself. The induction of process of thinking is based on science whereas the deductive reasoning is something that we know is always the truth. Statements can only be true up to a certain point, therefore we can never be certain about things Hume concluded. We may all be certain that the sun will rise tomorrow, however one day it won't which is the reason behind the thinking of David Hume.


Chapter 10 is all about miracles and is important for journalism. He concentrates on two things concerned with them:

1. The probability (or improbability) of a miraculous event occurring.
2. The validity of any testimony from someone claiming to have witnessed a miraculous event.

Not only is Hume concerned to question the very idea of miracles occurring, but he particularly focuses on whether a miraculous event can (or should be) be the basis of a religious system of belief. Being a well-known atheist of his time, we should not be surprised when he says that they cannot: 'I beg the limitations here made may be remarked, when I say, that a miracle can never be proved, so as to be the foundation of a system of religion.' 


However he uses the idea of Jesus resurrecting from the dead which is an event which is said to demonstrate the truthfulness of Christianity (and therefore see the Christian faith as being true). Hume is more concerned with the idea of assessing the reliability of the evidence that it did occur as he believes it is hard to prove anything.

Joseph Addison

Joseph(1672-1719) was an English poet, essayist and politician. He was one of the first journalists and founded along with Richard Steele the 'Spectator Magazine'. Joseph was a travel and fashion writer where he would write articles based on facts and fiction of social events. Some of his best work was 'ladies at a jig' which was about women in their coffee houses having a drink and 'A day at the stock exchange' where he observed people. His writing was objective and materialist that showed no emotion as it was rather superficial.

A well written creative piece of journalism that I have read is 'The adventures of a shilling' which follows the shilling through a journey of being passed around different people. It is very interesting and clever as it explains who handles it, what it is used for and how it eventually is re- formed and made more 'beautiful' as it becomes a new coin.


Addison made up a fictional character called Sir Andrew Freeport who was a rich merchant and gave lectures to beggars on the street. He was trying to teach them how to get off the street and was very dry and comical as he made jokes about people.

Addison, Hume and Locke are all similar as they were all protestant where any misfortune was put down to the women. It was the time of the witch trials and when all violins were burnt as they were believed to be work of the devil. They were also part of the restoration period where manners and politeness of people were very important.