Editing Invisible hand (section)

==History of the terms and concepts==
The term "invisible hand" has classical roots, and it was relatively widely used in 18th-century English.{{sfn|Kennedy|2017|page=84}} Adam Smith's own usage of the term did not attract much attention until many generations after his death. In his early unpublished essay on ''The History of Astronomy'' (written before 1758) he specifically described this type of explanation as a common and unscientific way of thinking. Smith wrote that superstitious people, or people with no time to think philosophically about complex chains of cause and effect, tend to explain irregular, unexpected natural phenomena such as "thunder and lightning, storms and sunshine", as acts of favour or anger performed by "gods, daemons, witches, genii, fairies". For this reason the philosophical or scientific study of nature can only begin when there is social order and security, so that people are not living in fear, and can be attentive.<ref>Smith, A., 1980, ''The Glasgow edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith,'' 7 vol., Oxford University Press, vol. III, pp. 49-50</ref> Because of this background, a wide range of interpretations have been given to the fact that Smith himself used the metaphor twice when discussing economic topics. On one extreme it has been argued that Smith was literally suggesting that divine intervention is at play in the economy,{{sfn|Oslington|2012|}} and at the other extreme it has been suggested that Smith's use of this metaphor shows that he was being sarcastic.{{sfn|Rothschild|1994}}

The modern conception of a free market causing the best possible economic result, which is now commonly associated with the term "invisible hand", also developed further, going beyond Smith's conception. It has been influenced by arguments for free markets found not only in Smith's works, but also by earlier writers such as especially [[Bernard Mandeville]], and later more mathematical approaches by economists such as Pareto and Marshall.