"Modern sociology is virtually an attempt to take up the larger program of social analysis and interpretation which was implicit in Adam Smith's moral philosophy, but which was suppressed for a century by prevailing interest in the technique of the production of wealth"
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Small is doing something slyly revisionist here: he frames sociology not as a late-blooming rival to economics, but as economics' forgotten conscience returning to collect a debt. By invoking Adam Smith's moral philosophy, he pries Smith away from the one-dimensional caricature of market evangelist and re-centers him as a thinker of sympathy, norms, and social obligation. The move is strategic. If sociology can claim Smith as a precursor, it borrows legitimacy from the canonical architect of modern economic thought while also rebuking the discipline that canonized him.
The target is a century of industrial-era tunnel vision. "Suppressed" is the loaded word: it suggests the broader human questions were not answered and set aside, but actively pushed down by an intellectual climate enthralled with "technique" and "production of wealth". Small is diagnosing a cultural bargain made during capitalism's ascent: measure what can be counted, and sideline what can't. Underneath the sentence is a critique of the age's self-image as relentlessly "scientific" and efficient, as if prosperity were a sufficient moral argument.
Context matters: Small helped institutionalize American sociology when the U.S. was wrestling with urbanization, labor conflict, and vast inequality. In that moment, sociology had to justify itself against economics' prestige and against a public imagination trained to treat markets as natural and social problems as personal failure. His intent is to recast sociology as the discipline that restores the missing half of modernity's story: not just how wealth is made, but what it does to people, institutions, and the moral fabric that markets quietly depend on.
The target is a century of industrial-era tunnel vision. "Suppressed" is the loaded word: it suggests the broader human questions were not answered and set aside, but actively pushed down by an intellectual climate enthralled with "technique" and "production of wealth". Small is diagnosing a cultural bargain made during capitalism's ascent: measure what can be counted, and sideline what can't. Underneath the sentence is a critique of the age's self-image as relentlessly "scientific" and efficient, as if prosperity were a sufficient moral argument.
Context matters: Small helped institutionalize American sociology when the U.S. was wrestling with urbanization, labor conflict, and vast inequality. In that moment, sociology had to justify itself against economics' prestige and against a public imagination trained to treat markets as natural and social problems as personal failure. His intent is to recast sociology as the discipline that restores the missing half of modernity's story: not just how wealth is made, but what it does to people, institutions, and the moral fabric that markets quietly depend on.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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