Adam Smith – pięć razy o racjonalności w ekonomii
Adam Smith – five theses on the rationality in economics

(On occasion of 240th anniversary of the release of The Wealth of Nations)

Summary/Abstract: The article represents a synthetic attempt at putting Adam Smith’s thought in a broader historical perspective. It takes into account the process of emerging of the new type of society (so called modern society) and links it to the changes of the mentality, which was subsequently reflected in the European thought. The paper focuses on the transformations of the age of Enlightment, the age when of the author of An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nation lived. Adam Smith, an outstanding thinker of the Scottish Enlightenment, cannot be read as an author of one famous book. Focusing solely on this book, without scrutinizing his philosophical ruminations against the backdrop of the fundamental social and cultural processes which were taking place at this time, leads inevitably to the false and parochial interpretation of his intentions and thought. The paper explores only one of the whole gamut of problems of utmost importance for both economics and Enlightment - the problem of rationality

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