Book contents
- Explorations in the Digital History of Ideas
- Explorations in the Digital History of Ideas
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Computational Methodologies for the History of Ideas
- Part II Case Studies in the Digital History of Ideas
- 4 The Idea of Liberty, 1600–1800
- 5 The Idea of Government in the British Eighteenth Century
- 6 Republicanism in the Founding of America
- 7 Enlightenment Entanglements of Improvement and Growth
- 8 The Idea of Commercial Society: Changing Contexts and Scales
- 9 The Age of Irritability
- 10 On Bubbles and Bubbling: The Idea of ‘The South Sea Bubble’
- 11 Embedded Ideas: Revolutionary Theory and Political Science in the Eighteenth Century
- 12 Computing Koselleck: Modelling Semantic Revolutions, 1720–1960
- Index
7 - Enlightenment Entanglements of Improvement and Growth
from Part II - Case Studies in the Digital History of Ideas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 November 2023
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Book contents
- Explorations in the Digital History of Ideas
- Explorations in the Digital History of Ideas
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Computational Methodologies for the History of Ideas
- Part II Case Studies in the Digital History of Ideas
- 4 The Idea of Liberty, 1600–1800
- 5 The Idea of Government in the British Eighteenth Century
- 6 Republicanism in the Founding of America
- 7 Enlightenment Entanglements of Improvement and Growth
- 8 The Idea of Commercial Society: Changing Contexts and Scales
- 9 The Age of Irritability
- 10 On Bubbles and Bubbling: The Idea of ‘The South Sea Bubble’
- 11 Embedded Ideas: Revolutionary Theory and Political Science in the Eighteenth Century
- 12 Computing Koselleck: Modelling Semantic Revolutions, 1720–1960
- Index
Summary
This chapter models the idea of economic growth in the period of the Enlightenment in Britain. Using methods developed in the Cambridge Concept Lab, it demonstrates that the ideas of improvement and progress supported the slow evolution of the notion of economic growth as a necessary good. It tracks the thinking of the philosopher and political economist Adam Smith as he formulated his ideas with respect to size and operation of modern capitalist economies.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Explorations in the Digital History of IdeasNew Methods and Computational Approaches, pp. 140 - 162Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023