SIR JAMES STEUART ON THE ORIGINS OF COMMERCIAL NATIONS

This paper examines James Steuart’s explanation of the emergence of commercial nations. Unlike other Scottish thinkers of the time, Steuart argues that artifice is necessary for the rise of commercial societies. He uses the term “artificial” to refer to a devised process, one that is an alternative to the supposedly natural process arising from innate propensities. The system of trade and commerce is an “artifice” created by merchants to obtain benefits, and established by the sovereign for his ostentation and personal prestige, until it became generalized as a commercial nation. Steuart’s explanation of the emergence of commercial nations accounts for how individuals become dependent on and subordinate to the public market. This paper concludes that Steuart’s Political Œconomy promotes a science of the artificial that seeks to understand the functioning of non-natural mechanisms and to create instruments that the statesman adapts to the needs and objectives of individuals.

Journal of the History of Economic Thought Preprints - Sir James Steuart on the Origins of Commercial Nations

This paper examines James Steuart’s explanation of the emergence of commercial nations. Unlike other Scottish thinkers of the time, Steuart argues that artifice is necessary for the rise of commercial societies. He uses the term “artificial” to refer to a devised process, one that is an alternative to the supposedly natural process arising from innate propensities. The system of trade and commerce is an “artifice” created by merchants to obtain benefits, and established by the sovereign, for his ostentation and personal prestige, until it became generalized as a commercial nation. Steuart's explanation of the emergence of commercial nations accounts for how individuals become dependent on and subordinate to the public market. Finally, this paper concludes that Steuart’s Political Œconomy promotes a science of the artificial that seeks to understand the functioning of non-natural mechanisms and to create instruments that the statesman adapts to the needs and objectives of individuals

Ignorance and Organization Studies

The article discusses ignorance and organization studies, both as a topic of study and a basic problem of organization theory understood as design theory. How should we regard knowledge not yet known? Is the development of knowledge a straightforward illumination of a defined box, or does knowledge also have a dark side, growing even faster than the illuminated side? In this article, we propose that more extended research into ignorance in organization studies is needed. And since ignorance is a product of inattention, we draw on Herbert Simon’s investigation into the science of the artificial. Among the topics we explore are unpredictable environments, the interface between inner and outer environments, vagueness and unspecified ignorance.

Epilogue

The Epilogue concludes that although computer science is a science of the artificial, one centred on symbol processing, it also serves as a bridge between the world of computational artefacts and the natural world, specifically, that of biological molecules, human cognition, and neuronal processes. Could it be that computation embraces both the natural and artificial and is, therefore, a universal science? What is certain is that computer science has given us a remarkably distinctive way of perceiving, thinking about, and solving a breathtakingly broad spectrum of problems—spanning natural, social, cultural, technological, and economic realms.

Synthetic Biology – Towards an Engineering Science

The new research field of synthetic biology is emerging from molecular biology, chemistry, biotechnology, information technology and engineering. This paper describes synthetic biology as a ‘Science of the Artificial’ and identifies structural features of engineering sciences that can be applied to this new kind of biology as opposed to traditional biology. The search for laws already in traditional biology has been difficult. In Synthetic Biology, action and application stand in the foreground and laws increasingly lose ground as a meaningful concept.

It Began with Babbage

As a field, computer science occupies a unique scientific space, in that its subject matter can exist in both physical and abstract realms. An artifact such as software is both tangible and not, and must be classified as something in between, or "liminal." The study and production of liminal artifacts allows for creative possibilities that are, and have been, possible only in computer science. In It Began with Babbage, computer scientist and writer Subrata Dasgupta examines the distinct history of computer science in terms of its creative innovations, reaching back to Charles Babbage in 1819. Since all artifacts of computer science are conceived with a use in mind, the computer scientist is not concerned with the natural laws that govern disciplines like physics or chemistry; instead, the field is more concerned with the concept of purpose. This requirement lends itself to a type of creative thinking that, as Dasgupta shows us, has exhibited itself throughout the history of computer science. More than any other, computer science is the science of the artificial, and has a unique history to accompany its unique focus. The book traces a path from Babbage's Difference Engine in the early 19th century to the end of the 1960s by when a new academic discipline named "computer science" had come into being. Along the way we meet characters like Babbage and Ada Lovelace, Turing and von Neumann, Shannon and Chomsky, and a host of other people from a variety of backgrounds who collectively created this new science of the artificial. And in the end, we see how and why computer science acquired a nature and history all of its own.