01384nas a2200109   4500008004100000245001700041210001600058260001200074520110200086100001701188856006901205       2014                        eng d00aAdam Smith's0 aAdam Smiths  aLeipzig3 aKeywords: invisible hand, growth, degrowth Narrative step: Organizing society To understand Smith’s thinking about historical progress as a mechanism channeling private interests in favour of public benefit is mislead by a shortened reading of his texts. To grasp a more accurate picture of Smith’s conception of progress one should ask why Smith put overall economic growth into the center of his economic thinking. The answer cannot be found by interpreting this proposition as a concession to the „invisible hand“, to an assumed necessary beneficial effect of individual wealth striving on the public good, which Smith discribes as the flourishing of „liberty, reason, and happiness of mankind“ and puts under the protection of a „civil government“. To Smith economic growth appears as a condition for the possible set-up of such a „civil government“. But today further economic growth can only be partial and at the expense of others. It cannot be a prerequisite for the flourishing of „liberty, reason, and hapiness of mankind“ anymore if not complemented by degrowth.1 aWagner, Till  uhttps://degrowth.community/conference2014/scientific-papers/3730