Classical Political Economy and the Power of Technology: Adam Smith and Thorstein Veblen on Technological Ambivalence

This paper engages Adam Smith’s and Thorstein Veblen’s insights on technology’s ambivalent impact on society. While Adam Smith’s work is mostly perceived as an optimistic pre-industrial analysis of technology’s effects on economic growth, Thorstein Veblen is predominantly interpreted as technological determinist who sees socioeconomic institutions as recalcitrant to technology-induced modernization pressures. Contrary to such interpretations, this paper argues that Smith and Veblen offer surprisingly nuanced and comprehensive philosophies of technology that display intimate awareness of technology’s ambivalent impact on society. Besides offering detailed accounts of technology’s positive contributions to innovation, production, efficiency, and broader societal welfare etc., both authors also address the problematic transnational consequences of technological innovation for individuals and communities. The paper demonstrates that Smith and Veblen’s works offer elaborate ethically motivated philosophies of technology that produce critical insights into the material, habitual, and institutional consequences of technological evolution for the larger trajectory of modern society and emerging public policy issues. The paper signals how classical political economic works offer nuanced perspectives on technology that can productively inform contemporary debates about the ethical challenges of 21st century technologies.