The Impartial Spectator And The Strictness Of Rules
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The Impartial Spectator and the Strictness of Rules
Adam Smith argues that the ethical foundation of justice including property rights is to be found in the approbation of the impartial spectator. In this paper I argue that that the strictness, precision, and accuracy of the general rules of justice cannot be so explained. Something is missing. What is missing are the factors stressed by David Hume. The first is self-interest from the “general point of view.” Through the convention of justice our long-run self-interest is channeled toward social cooperation. Nevertheless, there are clearly incentives to depart from justice in a particular case. One incentive, not recognized by Smith, is derived from beneficence. Cases of justice do not come before us labeled as such. There is the danger of misplaced beneficence that will exempt a “sympathetic” individual from the requirements of justice. This in turn may produce a slippery slope toward the dilution of justice. To avoid these problems the rules of justice need to be relatively strict. But this strictness comes not from the requirements of the impartial spectator but from the recognition of its usefulness in promoting the public interest.
The Adam Smith Review
Adam Smith’s contribution to economics is well recognised, yet scholars have recently been exploring anew the multidisciplinary nature of his works. The Adam Smith Review is a rigorously refereed annual review that provides a unique forum for interdisciplinary debate on all aspects of Adam Smith’s works, his place in history, and the significance of his writings to the modern world. It is aimed at facilitating debate among scholars working across the humanities and social sciences, thus emulating the reach of the Enlightenment world which Smith helped to shape. This twelfth volume brings together leading scholars from across several disciplines and contributes to two particular themes. First, there is a focus on Adam Smith’s moral and political philosophy, exploring how Smith’s approach finds expression in both abstract philosophy and practical judgment. Second, there is a focus on epistemology, economics, and law, with innovative interpretations of Smithian theories.
Adam Smith’s Moral Sentiments in Vanity Fair
According to Adam Smith, vanity is a vice that contains a promise: a vain person is much more likely than a person with low self-esteem to accomplish great things. Problematic as it may be from a moral perspective, vanity makes a person more likely to succeed in business, politics and other public pursuits. “The great secret of education,” Smith writes, “is to direct vanity to proper objects:” this peculiar vice can serve as a stepping-stone to virtue. How can this transformation be accomplished and what might go wrong along the way? What exactly is vanity and how does it factor into our personal and professional lives, for better and for worse? This book brings Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments into conversation with William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair to offer an analysis of vanity and the objects (proper and otherwise) to which it may be directed. Leading the way through the literary case study presented here is Becky Sharp, the ambitious and cunning protagonist of Thackeray’s novel. Becky is joined by a number of other 19th Century literary heroines – drawn from the novels of Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot – whose feminine (and feminist) perspectives complement Smith’s astute observations and complicate his account of vanity. The fictional characters featured in this volume enrich and deepen our understanding of Smith’s work and disclose parts of our own experience in a fresh way, revealing the dark and at times ridiculous aspects of life in Vanity Fair, today as in the past.