Was Smith A Moral Subjectivist?

Economic Thought 8 (1):30 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper challenges the commonly held view that Smith's moral theory is a subjectivist theory. Smith's test for goodness and rightness – for propriety – is not the approbation of an impartial spectator, but the warranted approbation of such a spectator. Something is right or good not because an impartial spectator would approve of it, but because such a spectator would be warranted in so approving....

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,610

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

The impartiality of Smith’s spectator: The problem of parochialism and the possibility of social critique.David Golemboski - 2018 - European Journal of Political Theory 17 (2):174-193.
The man within the breast, the supreme impartial spectator, and other impartial spectators in Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments.Daniel B. Klein, Erik W. Matson & Colin Doran - 2018 - History of European Ideas 44 (8):1153-1168.
Moral Parochialism and the Limits of Impartiality.David Thunder - 2016 - Heythrop Journal 61 (1):24-34.
Amartya Sen’s Idea of Justice and Impartial Spectator for the Question of injustice.Umut Dağ - 2018 - İnsan Ve Insan Dergisi 5 (18).
Love Redirected: On Adam Smith's Love of Praiseworthiness.Sveinung Sundfør Sivertsen - 2017 - Journal of Scottish Philosophy 15 (1):101-123.
Adam Smith: The sympathetic process and the origin and function of conscience.Christel Fricke - 2013 - In Christopher J. Berry, Maria Pia Paganelli & Craig Smith (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Adam Smith. Oxford University Press. pp. 177.
‘The Man Within’: Adam Smith on Moral Autonomy and Religious Sentiments.Jeng-Guo S. Chen - 2017 - Journal of Scottish Philosophy 15 (1):47-64.
¿Es posible formular un juicio moral válido? La respuesta de Adam Smith.Enrique Ujaldón - 2005 - Daimon: Revista Internacional de Filosofía 36:117-130.
Self-interest, Sympathy and the Invisible Hand: From Adam Smith to Market Liberalism.Avner Offer - 2012 - Economic Thought 1 (2).
Sympathy, Beauty, and Sentiment: Adam Smith's Aesthetic Morality.Robert Fudge - 2009 - Journal of Scottish Philosophy 7 (2):133-146.
Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic Ethic, and Adam Smith.Harold B. Jones - 2010 - Journal of Business Ethics 95 (1):89 - 96.
More Than Free Markets: Adam Smith and the Virtue of Responsibility.Joe Blosser - 2016 - Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 36 (1):163-179.
Hume's and Smith's Partial Sympathies and Impartial Stances.Jon Rick - 2007 - Journal of Scottish Philosophy 5 (2):135-158.
Adam Smith in Context: A Critical Reassessment of some Central Components of His Thought.Leonidas Montes - 2003 - Palgrave-Macmillan.
The impartial spectator: Adam Smith's moral philosophy.D. D. Raphael - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-06-08

Downloads
9 (#1,247,499)

6 months
3 (#962,966)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

On What Matters: Two-Volume Set.Derek Parfit - 2011 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity.Charles Taylor - 1989 - Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press.
Value in ethics and economics.Elizabeth Anderson - 1993 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Ethics and language.Charles Leslie Stevenson - 1944 - New York: AMS Press.
The Authority of Reason.Jean Hampton - 1998 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Richard Healey.

View all 16 references / Add more references