Smith's Invisible Hand and Hegel's Cunning of Reason.

Adam Smith's "invisible hand" and George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's "cunning of reason" each suppose that the action of self-interest in the economic world has consequences that transcend its apparent defects. Few writers before or after Smith and Hegel have developed arguments as influential or as definitive of the general questions surrounding the operation of self-interest. Significantly, both Smith and Hegel make similar assumptions and inferences in their respective treatments. A comparative examination of their arguments accordingly illuminates some of the common themes between them, as well as differences in their two views. At the same time, such an examination highlights the general nature of the inferences regarding the general good that can be made from the assumption of pervasive self-interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]