Just Sentiments

November 27, 2024


In The Theory of Moral Sentiments Adam Smith describes many kinds of men, including the proud man and the vain man. Klein explores Smith's ideas and himself in this essay.

"Smith’s view is that something impels us to learn to command troublesome passions, both solicitous and turbulent, but the commanding necessarily deploys other passions, commanding passions, to command or subdue the troublesome passions. Passions are checked by other passions." 

October 23, 2024


According to Adam Smith, not all patriotism is bad but some kinds are. Matson names two forms that Smith disapproves of: the patriotism of national jealousy and the patriotism of radical opposition.

"The true patriot, on Smith’s view, pursues partnership in commerce with the nations when possible... [Smith's vision of patriotism] balances the impulse to reform and improve with the need to preserve and protect the flower of civilization where it grows." 

September 25, 2024


Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), had by 1796 come to different sentiments. Roos Slegers describes how Wollstonecraft's travels around Europe during and after the French Revolution changed her beliefs about rebellion, education, morals, and manners.  

"Wollstonecraft shares Rousseau’s desire to escape from oppressive society, but rambling through the remote parts of Sweden and Norway she comes to the conclusion that a middle ground is necessary to develop one’s intellect, one’s morals, and one’s taste."

August 28, 2024


Some interpret Plato as too idealistic to have practical bearing on the real world of politics. Adam Smith, in Theory of Moral Sentiments, provides another lens through which to understand the roles of the ideal. Smith sheds light on the practical implications of Platonic philosophy for members of the polity. A thread can thus be drawn from the liberal philosophy of Smith back to the ancient wisdom of Plato.

"A personal pursuit of upwardness is sustainable, irrespective of the political conditions one finds oneself in. And that personal pursuit is perhaps the most practical way to influence how society is governed." 

June 26, 2024

Eric Hammer and Daniel Klein examine the actors in the system of the welfare state—the taxpayers, voters, politicians, pundits and advocates, civil servants, and recipients of welfare-state benefits—to determine whether generosity is present. They contend that the welfare state is devoid of generosity.

"The concept of generosity is not operative, one way or the other, in any of the roles that are essential or distinctive to the welfare state." 

May 22, 2024
  

Be fruitful and multiply! Nicholas Swanson shows that Adam Smith was resolutely pro-natalist and that his sentiments closely resemble those of Julian Simon.

"Besides the economic reasons Smith favored population growth, he seems to have been a pro-natalist for at least one other reason: he thought human life was good and worthwhile in itself."

April 24, 2024


Motamedi and Klein provide a character study of Adam Smith's example of a bigoted Roman Catholic who, overcome by compassion, saves Protestants instead of killing them during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre in 1572. Drawing on Smith, the authors suggest that virtue involves a dynamic between self-approbation and upward vitality like that seen in the Roman Catholic who overcomes his bigotry.

 "...our estimation of a person’s conduct or character involves a consideration of the person’s own self-approbation. When a person does not fully approve of his own good actions, that counts against him." 

March 27, 2024



David Hume believed Puritan attitudes contributed to the commercial spirit of England. Hume anticipated Max Weber’s focus on the Protestant ethic but also differed from him.
 
"Protestant convictions gelled with concurrent developments... The combination gave rise to both the spirit of the age and its material consequences."

February 28, 2024


A wise leader considers what the public can bear, not just what he thinks would otherwise be best. Clark and Hollister show Smith's Solonic side as Smith edits his works and responds to the world around him.

"The socialist or fascist is more prone to this folly, but a liberal may also qualify as a man of system if he makes his doctrine his vanity."

January 24, 2024



Gains are novel and require time to be incorporated into our ideas of ourself. Losses, however, effect the base upon which we have built ourselves up. Alshamy and Klein explain Smith's lasting ideas regarding behavioral psychology and asymmetrical sympathy.

"Smith saw that the depths of the downside—misery, suffering, anguish—are deeper, more profound, and more enduring than the heights of the upside—levity and joy." 

December 27, 2023


Many say that Adam Smith unequivocally endorsed government funding of schooling. Drylie says they are wrong.

"Smith would certainly approve of the broad public attention to education and the tendency toward local decision making, but still disapprove of the permanent and focal placement of government in this critical aspect of our lives." 

November 22, 2023
 

Tan shows the parallels in the thought of two great civilizational moralists, though separated by space, tradition, and more than 2000 years.

"Finding the universal truth in a culture that seems quite different from one’s own does not homogenize the two cultures, but it may harmonize them."

October 25, 2023


Diesel treats one of Smith’s most discussed exceptions to the liberty principle, namely, his endorsement of the status-quo cap on interest rates. Diesel proposes that we read between the lines. Smith’s argumentation for the cap is immediately subverted by his own statement that lenders can distinguish between sober and unsober borrowers.

"...in a free-market lenders could of their own choosing refrain from lending at high rates, simply to attract some of the sober borrowers to their pool of applicants."

September 27, 2023


Santori speculates that the first book of Adam Smith's project in Wealth of Nations can also be read as a response to Hume's skepticism about God and the problem of evil.

"Smith’s best arguments to defend God’s work against the charge raised by Philo’s consideration of human evil [in Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion] are thus the birth of commercial society and the opulence of markets to the private and public good."

August 23, 2023


DelliSanti explores the controversy about the nature of Smith's "man within the breast" and what kinds of individual innovations are possible in understanding and changing moral norms.

"[I]n Smith’s interpretation of the moral sphere, innovations are innovative consciences. In the moral sphere, the adoption by society of one person’s innovation is the adoption of that person’s conscience."

July 26, 2023


Ballor looks to Smith on how royal and market institutions influence those in and around them.  

"Smith wants to expand the scope and significance of market mores, where 'more important virtues' like industriousness, thrift, honesty, temperance, and prudence can be cultivated more consistently..."

June 28, 2023


Laissez faire, laissez passer. The history of economic liberalism in France from 1695 to 1776 shares a common legacy with other European countries and is a rich and understudied source of economic reasoning.

"Economic liberalism was formulated over several generations of intellectuals across Europe. The contribution of France was especially valuable from the year 1695."

May 24, 2023


Did Adam Smith misremember Cicero's story or is Smith winking to his true audience across time?

"The wise man seeks to be thought worthy by the best judges, those who would or ought to approve of our work, conduct, and character, no matter when that person is to be found."

April 26, 2023


What is being explained and what is the explanation? Robinson and Subrick argue that Smith saw the pitfalls of a labor theory of value (LTV) but used it as a noble lie to affirm the moral value of labor and argue that it receives fair compensation in a market-based economy.

"Smith used the language of LTV in [Wealth of Nations] to assure the laboring classes that their labor remained dignified and rewarded under his liberal plan."

March 22, 2023


Mueller shows how the ideas Adam Smith developed in The Theory of Moral Sentiments further undergird his arguments for limited and mainly local government. 

"Where social affairs are free from governmentalization, people operate in contexts that promote more robust moral judgments. People better find the path of virtue."

February 22, 2023


Martin looks closely at when and how Adam Smith advocates for the interests and welfare of the least well off.

Did Adam Smith always side with the poor and weak against the rich and powerful? Christopher Martin gives the resounding answer: Yes, mostly. It’s a little complicated.

January 25, 2023


Breashears shows that there's always more to learn from Adam Smith - not only from the content of his writing but from the paratexts of his work as well.

"Seeing Smith's paratextual materials, we recover some of the fullness of Smith’s outlook for human life in modern times."

December 28, 2022


What are the historical requirements for the emergence of stable liberal polities? Adam Smith suggests monogamous marriages as an important, steadying institution.

"Families meet not on violent terms, but on civil and economic ones instead. The polity can focus on improving the polity, rather than fighting."

November 23, 2022


Adam Smith's “An Inquiry into the Principles which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries; Illustrated by the History of Astronomy.” is an adventure into reflection on the passional and aesthetic dimensions of scientific and philosophic practice.

"As we participate in Smith’s passions, we can’t help but feel still higher levels of surprise, wonder, and admiration: surprise at the ending of Smith’s essay, wonder at the novelty of his ironic self-contradiction, and admiration for his genius. The sentiments encourage us to puzzle over Smith’s contrariety and arrive at a fuller sense of the purpose of his essay."

October 26, 2022


290 vs 0. That's the tally between the mentions of "sympathy" in Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments vs his Wealth of Nations. Caleb Petitt and Daniel Klein keep count on this and much more.

"The dramatic difference in the language used by Smith in his two books does not reflect a change in Smith over time...The language shift is all part of a larger, coherent, unified attempt to improve people’s judgments."

September 28, 2022


Kacey Reeves West examines Smith on entrepreneurs and prudent entrepreneurship from princes to politicians to businesswomen.

"Smith cautions that these life-changing opportunities might tempt individuals to abandon virtue and embrace vice. For that reason, Smith calls on individuals to tackle life-changing opportunities with prudence and justice lest they fall prey to disordered ambition."

August 24, 2022


Shera explores the connection between thinking and conduct in William James and Adam Smith's philosophical works.

"Meaningful beliefs come with practical habits, and the value of those habits is a test of truth."

June 27, 2022


Hall shows that Adam Smith and David Hume's ideas concerning the Common Law and English Liberty are more closely related that some scholars believe.

"The style of Hume’s History and Smith’s LJ differ, or course. Smith lectured to students whereas Hume wrote for mass consumption. But their estimation of the importance of the common law for the development of English liberty is equal." 

June 22, 2022


Matson explains Adam Smith's moral authorizations of the pursuit of honest income and the presumption of liberty.

"One of the patron saints of the Great Enrichment, Smith teaches how we do our part in serving the good of the whole; how in focusing diligently on the good of our part we serve that of the whole; and how freedom fortifies the remarkable correspondence between those two goods."

May 25, 2022


Klein focuses on the crucial concepts of jural theory and jurisprudence and how these relate to Deirdre McCloskey's work on the Great Enrichment.
 
"Whatever the reasons for its neglect, the jural theory of Grotius and others clarified and still clarifies the liberty that is at the center of what Smith called 'the liberal plan.' "

April 27, 2022


In the second essay in our series, Klein and Matson discuss Smith and Hume's language and ideas about "nature" and "convention."

"We can define natural convention as a social practice whose concrete form in time and place allows for various expressions (and is therefore conventional), but whose generalized form is necessary (and hence natural) to social development beyond the primeval state."