Adam Smith and Rousseau on the Origin of Languages

Adam Smith’s major works are widely, though not universally, thought to constitute a powerful rebuttal to the critique of civilized life and commercial society in Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality. This article examines Smith’s few explicit references to Rousseau, all of which denigrated Rousseau without coming to grips with his arguments. The analysis focuses on the only topic that elicited a specific substantive criticism of Rousseau: the origin of languages. This topic, which was seriously pursued by both authors, has the advantage of being unburdened with the normative controversies generated today by their different assessments of commercial society. On this topic at least, Rousseau was more daring and ambitious, which suggests that Smith’s avoidance of a direct confrontation with the radical analysis of human nature and civilized life in the Discourse on Inequality may have been motivated in part by an aversion to Rousseau’s philosophic relentlessness.