/lit/ - Literature

>>22524451
If you want instrumental rationality then Hobbes is probably better as he spells it out explicitly. Weber is also a good source for discussions on instrumental rationality.
Mandeville is a proto-Smith, and if you just read the poem portion 'the grumbling hive' it will take you like, ten minutes (here's a link: https://jacklynch.net/Texts/hive.html)) It's not a great poem but well worth reading. The Fable of The Bees is a version with footnotes which expound on specific lines, but personally i think you can get most of it just from the poem.
I think you'd like Weber's 'Protestant Ethic' too if you haven't already read it already.
I was referring to pic related, which you might also get a kick out of, though i wouldn't consider it on the level of Adorno.