Technology, Judgment, and Freedom: Technological Criticism in Adam Smith

• In Event: Poster Session: Political Thought and Philosophy & International History and Politics
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Political Thought and Philosophy: Historical Approaches

Abstract

While Adam Smith is renowned for advocating freedom of trade and innovative economic principles, few have thoroughly considered the role technology plays in his overall project. Smith's famous account of the division of labor is not as unqualifiedly good as one might suppose on first reading. Though dividing labor into smaller, time-saving, productivity-increasing tasks leads to tremendous growth in wealth, it also leads to several potential harms, some of which are attributable not just to the division of labor but to technological innovation, which is itself "occasioned" by the division of labor. Smith argues that there are those who will be consigned to menial, mind-numbing tasks as a consequence of the great advancement of machines that abridge labor through automation. This narrow focus and lack of opportunity to exercise judgment leads to what he calls "mental mutilation." Absent some sort of external remedy, like a thorough system of education, Smith fears that the worker will be consigned to a less-than-human existence. Smith finds this troubling not solely for economic reasons, but primarily for human ones. Smith argues that social relationships are built on sympathy, sympathy being the faculty by which we enter into the feelings of others in order to feel along with them. Sympathy, in other words, is what makes us interested not solely in ourselves but also in others. If the division of labor, and specifically technological innovations, are as dangerous to the mind and imagination as Smith supposes, then certain technologies can be condemned for their tendency to harm man's sympathetic nature.

This lack of sympathy in the worker is concerning because individual for freedom is, for Smith, premised on human judgment. The ability to reflect, imagine, sympathize, and choose between various complex moral options is the essence of what makes us free. Informed judgments, particularly moral judgments, require an awareness of the feelings of those around us that only sympathy can provide. If the division of labor or its consequences can be harmful to the human faculties for imagination, sympathy, and judgment, they can be criticized as impediments to freedom. Smith's thought on technology can then aid contemporary thinkers in understanding the relationship between technology and freedom in commercial society.

Author

• Philip Bunn, University of Wisconsin - Madison