The emphasis on animal physical and mental characteristics was central to debates about them throughout the early modern era. But toward the end of the eighteenth century a new outlook began to be developed, emphasizing the place that the use of animals had played in the historical progress of human civilization. This new type of discourse, as we have seen, was first outlined in Enlightenment historical literature. The next, and crucial, step was the transposition of this historiographical outlook on animals into the new burgeoning field of political economy. The conclusions of historical analysis were transformed into the prescriptions of economics. It was this which provided the basis for the modern consideration of animals as economic resources. As we will see in the following chapter, this changing perspective, or “economization” of animals, had in fact been gradually developing since the seventeenth century and could be noticed not just in economic discourse per se but even in artistic representations of animals. However, the most decisive stage in this process of changing views of animals was taken toward the end of the eighteenth century by the great innovator in the emergence of the modern science of economics, the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith. In the present chapter we will therefore outline his specific contribution, and in the following chapter we will look at the broader development of economic conceptions of animals. Smith's attitude toward animals has received relatively little attention from scholars. Other studies, while not centering specifically on animals, have explored the relevance of his philosophy for modern environmental concerns in general. These studies have recognized that Smith's direct interest in animals and environmental issues was in itself relatively minor compared to his primary philosophical concerns, but they have found certain aspects of his philosophy potentially useful for elucidating such issues from a modern perspective. The intention here is not to argue with these valuable studies but, rather, to present a different outlook on Smith's attitude toward animals and nature, one grounded in a more historically contextualized approach.

In his Theory of Moral Sentiments Smith observed that animals had a capacity for pleasure and pain, but he also implied that they lacked consciousness of merit and demerit.