The intro to Jack Weinstein’s chapter. In the midst of one of the most famous passages in The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith writes “nobody ever saw a dog make a fair and deliberate exchange of one bone for another with another dog” (WN I.ii.2). In and of itself, this is probably not a noteworthy…
The intro to Gloria Zúñiga y Postigo’s essay Is the assumption of self-interested behavior assumed in economics at odds with altruism and compassion? I believe that this question—which has been formulated in various ways in the literature for the past two centuries—is the thorn that often turns us away from reconciling the Adam Smith of the…
Here is the Twitter interview conducted earlier. Adam Smithadam smith problemEconomicsmoral philosophyPropriety and Prosperity: New Studies on the Philosophy of Adam SmithTheory of Moral SentimentsWealth of Nations
The intro to Brian Glenney’s chapter: The aim of this chapter is to propose an account of sensory perception from the known writings of Adam Smith, chiefly his juvenile work, “On the External Senses.” This account asserts that when we perceive an object we simulate its painful or pleasurable effects on our body—we imaginatively place…
The into to Joshua Rust’s chapter: Cognitive neuroscience is in the midst of what has been called an “affective revolution,” which places empathy at the center of a core set of moral competencies. While empathy has not been without its critics (Bloom, 2013; Prinz, 2011), both the radicals and the reactionaries routinely cite Adam Smith’s…
Live Twitter Q&A on Monday 9 Feb at 8:30am PT, 11:30am UTC and 16:30 GMT. Adam SmithPropriety and Prosperity: New Studies on the Philosophy of Adam SmithTheory of Moral SentimentsWealth of Nations
Here is the intro to Roger Frantz’ chapter. ~~~~~~~ Adam Smith (1723-1790) was a polymath with several of his key concepts and theories either having modern counterparts and/or “enjoying” empirical support. Smith wrote about the origin and proper use of language, grammar, the history of astronomy and ancient physics, moral philosophy, music, dance, and poetry,…
The intro to Laurent Dobuzinskis’ chapter: As is well known, Adam Smith spent about two years in Europe, most of it in France. It was in fact during his stay in Toulouse that he began to work on what became The Wealth of Nations (WN); but what proved decisive for the deepening of his understanding…
Cristiano Castelfranchi’s interesting article. For more on the invisible hand see Propriety and Prosperity: New Studies on the Philosophy of Adam Smith with the following contributions: Metaphor Made Manifest: Taking Seriously Smith’s ‘Invisible Hand’ by Eugene Heath The ‘Invisible Hand’ Phenomenon in Philosophy and Economics by Gavin Kennedy Instincts and the Invisible Order: The Possibility of…
Intro from Spiros Tegos’ chapter. Friendship is a rather unusual topic for Adam Smith scholars given the emphasis that the concept of sympathy has received in the field of Scottish Enlightenment scholarship. However it has been quite rightly pointed out that Smith considered sympathy to be central to commercial motivation (See Hanley, ms). The emblematic Smithian…
manwithoutqualities 