Theory Of Moral Sentiments Research Articles

ADAM SMITH’S PLURALISM AND THE SCIENCE OF THE LEGISLATOR

It is well established that we can make sense of Adam Smith’s multi-faceted account of human agency without incurring “das Adam Smith-Problem”. However, the relevance of his view of knowledge and agency for political economy as science of the legislator deserves to be studied more carefully. Smith’s view of human agency is linked to political realism and pragmatic pluralism, emphasizing the benefits of the knowledge made available by scientific “systems”, but also their limitations and incompleteness. Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, seen together with his realist discussions of mercantilist politics are suggesting explanatory and pragmatic advantages of such pluralism, while opening up horizons of problem-responsive second-best reforms avoiding fallacies of “the man of system”.

Ancient Sources in Adam Smith’s Theories of Sympathetic Morality and Imagination: Aristotle’s Thought and The Theory of Moral Sentiments

This essay considers the profound influence of Aristotle’s philosophy on Adam Smith’s theories of sympathetic morality and imagination. In particular, it examines how Smith’s theories, often seen as Stoic, align with Aristotelian concepts; also, it analyses Smith’s interpretation of wonder as more than a philosophical catalyst, but also as a force that enhances sensitivity to virtue and informs moral judgement: which is similar to Aristotle’s view of wonder as the genesis of philosophical and scientific inquiry. Consequently, Smith’s understanding of imagination is seen as a transformative cognitive faculty similar to Aristotle’s idea of it as an innate capacity for mental imagery and sensory perception. This juxtaposition underscores the role of the imagination as a creative dynamics that transcends individual perspective and captures the essence of human experience. Smith’s integration of Aristotelian thought represents thus a distinctive and nuanced contribution to the classical legacy within the Scottish Enlightenment, shaping a deeper understanding of moral and philosophical inquiry.

Adam Smith, human betterment, and his erroneous indentification with self-interested human action

In this essay I discuss the proposition that Adam Smith has been widely misinterpreted as asserting in his second book, The Wealth of Nations, that emergent modern economies are driven by the strictly selfish motives of their human inhabitants. The propositions articulated in his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which offered a theory of society, extended seamlessly into his second book, and continued to be part of his theory of economy. In both works, he distinguished the universal state of being self-interested from actions taken in one's self-interest, and modeled people as creating and following rules of propriety that enabled them to better get along with their neighbors. This distinction explains why, in his second book, he refers to people following their “own interest” in their “own way” explicitly avoiding any suggestion that people pursued only their strictly selfish interests in the process of wealth creation. That cautionary effort failed, although Smith continues to be a spectacularly successful theorist of society and economy, especially of interest to scholars in behavioral and experimental economics.

From pursuit of self-interest to pursuit of happiness: Complementary or contradictory readings of “wealth of nations” and “theory of moral sentiments”?

In the face of global economic volatility and widening socioeconomic disparities, there is a growing call to reevaluate prevailing economic models. Heterodox economists and management scholars increasingly emphasise the significance of happiness and subjective well-being, advocating for a well-being economy that prioritises human welfare over traditional growth-centric approaches. This article contributes to this discourse by critically examining Adam Smith's seminal works, particularly "The Wealth; of Nations" and "The Theory of Moral Sentiments." It argues for a nuanced; understanding of economic growth and progress, integrating subjective well-being and ethical considerations into contemporary management frameworks. Despite limited attention in management literature, Smith's ideas about the relationship between wealth and happiness offer valuable insights for modern management and the emerging field of well-being economics. This article explores how the relationship between wealth and happiness in Smith's works holds promise for contemporary debates.

Language Features of Song Deli’s Chinese Version of The Theory Of Moral Sentiments from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

Language Features of Song Deli’s Chinese Version of The Theory Of Moral Sentiments from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

The impartial spectator and the pursuit of interest in commercial society: A dual-text reading of Adam Smith for contemporary business and management

This article encourages a dual reading of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) and Wealth of Nations (WoN). The combined messages are important for contemporary business and management. One of the most important teachings from Adam Smith is that he makes us aware of the importance of an equilibrium between our own interests and those of individuals whom we deal and interact with in our economic life. When this is achieved with the help of the impartial spectator, in a well governed society, where there is simultaneous respect from individuals and the law for the natural flow of the economy, it is possible to achieve our own interests and those of our counterparts, and most important, we can project benefits, which may be unintended, to the society as a whole. Through this Smithian lens, we can see that business and management have a concern not only with economic projection, but also with the plurality of economic and social pursuits.

Moral sentiments and sustainable finance: A proposal for new market segmentation

This article revisits Smith's account of self-interest to critically explore challenges and debates surrounding sustainable finance in contemporary organizational and institutional settings. Adam Smith derives his notion of ‘self-interest’ as concerned with both ‘self-love’ (care for oneself) and ‘sympathy’ (care for others); elements that are increasingly siloed in contemporary business settings. Drawing inspiration from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (WoN) and the insightful wisdom of The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS), this article aims to underscore how Smith's pivotal concepts, including sympathy, the impartial spectator, and justice, provide a strategic compass for characterizing demand within retail finance markets. More specifically, it argues for the potential for both demand and supply side considerations in sustainable finance to contemplate a more plural concept of self-interest. At the same time, it recognizes that currently available ESG (environmental, social, and governance) products are largely driven by ‘self-love,’ and as such, the ‘sympathy’ of investors is ignored, manipulated, or misplaced. To move beyond this socio-financial dilemma, we propose to segment sustainable finance into the ESG market and the SSI (social and sustainable investment) market, with the latter specifically addressing the demands for ‘sympathy.’ In this context, future work could explore and highlight the role of regulators in ensuring a Smithian self-interest in sustainable finance.

A Forgotten Moral Value: Prudence

What we consider a virtue at a certain age depends on a lot of circumstances. It must also be taken into account at which age we can interpret which virtue at all. Prudence is a virtue whose importance and role can also be measured in the usage of words of the given era. Nowadays, very few people know the term, but explaining the content of it is a difficulty in itself, let alone transferring it from the passive to the active vocabulary. The real stake of the question is not a linguistic, but an ethical one. First of all, I examine the meaning of the concept, and then I turn to how Adam Smith analyses it in his work The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Next, I examine which thinkers influenced Smith's theories about prudence and which contemporaries in the Enlightenment had similar or different opinions about the same concept. Finally, I evaluate the importance of all the features that prudence includes in the conditions of the 21st century, and what possibilities and ways there are for their linguistic expression.

Sophie de Grouchy and the Recovery Project: Her Originality and Contribution to Philosophy

Abstract In 1798 Sophie de Grouchy (1764–1822) appended her eight Lettres sur la sympathie to her translation of Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In recent years her Lettres have attracted considerable scholarly attention, but interpretative errors, resulting from considering selections in isolation, have slipped into readings of de Grouchy’s work that undermine her originality and the unity of her views regarding ethical theory. The purpose of this paper is to correct prior readings and to properly recover Sophie de Grouchy’s voice for the philosophical canon. Topics include the origin of sympathy, the significance of pleasure and pain in de Grouchy, sympathy and social relations, the role of reason and sentiments in our moral disposition, and mislabeling de Grouchy’s philosophy. In all, de Grouchy grounds her complex ethics and political philosophy in sympathy, reason, reflection, and human dependency in an overarching vision of humanity that is hopeful and optimistic.

THE SMITH - NORTH CHAIN IN CONTEXT: SURFING IN THE SEA OF ECONOMIC IDEAS. ON THE 300 TH ANNIVERSARY OF ADAM SMITH

The wealth of nations depends on labor productivity (total factor productivity); productivity - on differentiation of labor/specialization; differentiation of labor/specialization - on the scale of the market; the scale of the market - on the level of transaction costs associated with the use of this coordination mechanism; transaction costs - on the properties of institutions that also affect incentives and the ability of subjects to adapt to the changing circumstances of interaction. This is the Smith - North chain, which, denoting the fundamental cause-andeffect relationships in economics and placed in a broad context of economic development, allows us to show both the continuity and variability of ideas of economists who have been developing the subject of economics in the past 250-275 years, but at the same time left without due attention another outstanding work of Smith - “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”. In this paper, we consider the “Smith problem” and approaches to its resolution, indicate the feasibility of a substitute for the synthesis of research approaches, built on several fundamental principles that can be derived from a contextual discussion of the Smith-North chain. The shift of emphasis in organizing interdisciplinary discourse is an important condition for acquiring a new quality of economics knowledge growth.

Commerce, labour and happiness: An Existential reading of Adam Smith’s ‘The poor man’s son’

This article highlights the philosophical contribution of an existential reading of Adam Smith’s narrative of ‘The poor man’s son’ that opens transdisciplinary research themes. The narrative in Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments [1759] deals with the issue of labour and happiness in commercial society, an important contemporary topic in meaningful labour research. This field is dominated by research on labour’s personal or moral value, which may lead to personal and workplace conflicts in case of ethical dilemmas. Recent research advocates existentialism, underscoring authenticity in workplace meaningful labour. The problem is that some of these studies limit meaning of employees’ reception of workplace policies and other events, resulting in a dualism between surface and deep existentialism. I will argue that an existential reading of the narrative ‘The poor man’s son’ contributes to transdisciplinary research by advancing research in commerce, specifically existential meaningful labour, by advocating an integrative theory of labour and happiness. The insights from Jean-Paul Sartre concerning anguish, authenticity, freedom, and facticity challenge the assumption that the son’s labour was meaningless because of the misery he experienced during old age, supporting a view that his choices were an expression of his freedom of choice and authenticity, and not determined by circumstances that provide important insights for an integrative theory of meaningful labour that prioritises the anguish of ontological freedom, consciousness as the source of freedom and facticity as hurdles to be surmounted on the path to fulfilment.Transdisciplinary contribution: The article is an intersection between philosophy and commerce by promoting insights from existentialism to read ‘The poor man’s son’ in Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments, providing insights for an integrative theory of meaningful labour and happiness.

“Total Exemption from Trouble and from Risk”: Adam Smith on the Time of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis

Despite Adam Smith’s seemingly firm entrenchment within the liberal tradition, in Theory of Moral Sentiments, he forwards several positions that fundamentally challenge this understanding. Chief among them is his argument that society is necessarily prior to the individual and that our socio-political context therefore shapes our perception of future possibilities. Thus, rational deliberation is not an ahistorical and universal phenomenon, but one that is structured by the context in which it occurs. Moreover, in Wealth of Nations, Smith brings this understanding to bear on socioeconomic relationships, demonstrating how they shape a person’s temporal imagination, and consequently, their perception of self-interest. Far from adhering to a belief in the supremacy of rational self-interest, Smith actually helps us understand how different social contexts can engender profoundly irrational behavior. Using the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis as its primary case study, this article demonstrates that Smith’s analysis offers a novel and penetrating approach to analyzing fiscal crises, while offering a generative approach for developing mitigating interventions.

FROM SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT TO TRIPARTITE THEORY

: In today’s political philosophy framework, it is commonplace to associate Adam Smith with akind of theory that ignores human dispositions and considers only the self-interested perspective ofindividuals. Although this view has been widely supported in different fields – viz Philosophy andEconomy, we consider this a biased interpretation. Using the Cambridge School orientation, we explainthe importance of historical background in reading Smith’s work to argue that Smith’s writings should beinterpreted within the Scottish Enlightenment context. From this contextual approach, it is possible tosustain an integrated reading of Smith’s books The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) and An Inquiryinto the Nature and Cause of the Wealth of Nations (WN). This reading leads to a more faithfulinterpretation of Smith’s idea that the agent in society is morally engaged in socio-economic relations.Once this hypothesis is confirmed, we will defend a systematic analysis of Smith’s philosophy arguingthat Smith’s philosophy is a holistic system, in what we call a tripartite theory.

Mandeville’s Moralists: Hume, Smith, and the Framing of Moral Virtue

Bernard Mandeville’s theory of morality – ‘private vices, public benefits’ – provides a frame for comparing Adam Smith and David Hume on utility. Mandeville held that vice, not virtue, is useful for society. For him, the private and public good do not align. What is bad for individuals is often beneficial for society and vice versa. To counter Mandeville’s rhetoric and show the attractiveness of virtue, Hume places the principle of utility at the center of his An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). This placement directs the reader’s attention away from the lack of alignment between private and public advantage and enables Hume to ‘dress’ moral virtue in utility and pleasure. Smith, by contrast, places the principle of propriety at the center of The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). This is because he is closer in spirit to Mandeville than is Hume in acknowledging a gap between the private and public good. By directing the reader’s attention to this gap in Part IV, Smith tries to show, contra Hume, that the principle of propriety, not utility, better explains and defends praiseworthy action and choice in an imperfect world.

Понятие «стыд» в «Теории нравственных чувств» Адама Смита

Adam Smith’s view of shame is generally in line with its understanding, which distin­guishes shame from other emotions of negative self-appraisal on the basis of the depen­dence of shame on the blame by others. In this respect, Smith belongs to the majority of Early Modern moral philosophers analyzing the phenomenon of shame. However, his view is specific in two respects: a) for him, any kind of moral self-appraisal has some connection with the judgment of an informed other, and b) images of the informed other used by him are diverse. They line up in the continuum from real other people to imag­ined other people with ordinary properties and from them to the imagined impartial and benevolent observer. The figure of the impartial and benevolent observer plays a crucial part in moral self-appraisal, but only as a normative compass. His judgments do not evoke shame. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, there are many fragments that corre­spond to the scheme “shame is a consequence of external judgment”, but there are also fragments that problematize it. In some places, repentance and remorse, i.e., emotions considered by other Early Modern philosophers as the opposite of shame by virtue of their independence of the blame by others, arise under the influence of the external gaze. In some other places, the difference between shame and remorse is due to the fact that they respond to violations of different moral principles (shame is an appropriate re­sponse to self-degrading actions, remorse – to the infliction of harm). Sometimes shame even appears as a component of a complex sentiment labeled as remorse.

The Problem of Groundless Shame in Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments

The Problem of Groundless Shame in Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Edgeworth's Romantic Realism: Fact, Belinda , Imagination

Abstract: Maria Edgeworth's Belinda (1800) has long been understood as the author's most straightforwardly "realist" novel. This article troubles that assumption by returning to the author's deep familiarity with Enlightenment moral philosophy, particularly Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and, in turn, uncovering the novel's strange admixture of Enlightenment rationality and Romantic intuitiveness—a mode of "Romantic realism" that champions fact-based induction, on the one hand, and, on the other, remains supple to epistemological challenges posed against that model by poets (and plagiarizers) such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge with his theory of imagination's " esemplastic power ."

Multihanded Adam Smith (Part one)

The paper analyzes the metaphor of “an invisible hand”, which was introduced two and a half centuries ago by Adam Smith (1723—1790) and which eventually became the central concept of modern economics. Its first part presents a detailed textual analysis of three fragments from Smith’s works where it is discussed — in the posthumously published “The history of astronomy” (1796), “The theory of moral sentiments” (1757) and “The wealth of nations” (1776). A question arises what meaning Smith put into his metaphor and what significance he attached to it — was there some important general idea behind it or was it merely a passing rhetoric device? There is also no consensus among historians of economic thought what interpretation is more correct — theological (in this case, the “invisible hand” is attributed to the Divine Providence directing it) or secular (in this case, it acts autonomously, without control from any external powers). In addition to “an invisible hand”, we also find in Smith’s texts “the visible hand” of the state, and he leaves no doubt on whose side his sympathies are.

Mary Wollstonecraft and Adam Smith on Gender and Self-Control

abstract: Mary Wollstonecraft is an early and important critic of Adam Smith, engaging with his Theory of Moral Sentiments in her Vindication of the Rights of Woman . Given Wollstonecraft's arguments against moralists who "give a sex to virtue," what did she make of Smith's use of gender-coded language and the oft-cited passage where he claims that "humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity of a man" ( TMS IV.2.10)? This paper revisits the scholarly debate over gender essentialism in Smith, arguing that Smith's view of virtue is not gender essentialist, and that Wollstonecraft saw this and did not target Smith with her critique. Instead, Wollstonecraft affirms Smith's claims, leveraging them in order to advocate for educational and social reform. Reading these texts together corrects the tenacious reading of Smith as a gender essentialist, while also illuminating the differences between Smith's and Wollstonecraft's conceptions of self-control.

Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments

This review identifies at least six different kinds of fellow-feeling in Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments. The six kinds are (i) the mirroring of emotions; (ii) altruism; (iii) judgment of pitch of emotions/actions; (iv) judgment of merit of emotions/actions; (v) friendship-and-love; and (vi) aspiration that leads to admiration. Smith does not list them side-by-side. This side-by-side listing promises to help thinkers to see how to assemble them to construct a coherent and systematic framework on how to amalgamate three moments of behavior: the emotional, the rational, and the moral.