Adam Smith
Morality grows from our ability to feel with others, and in a free market people pursuing their own interests often promote the good of society without intending it.
Placement
Moral philosopher, often called the founder of modern economics: sympathy as the basis of morality, the “invisible hand” of the market.
Key ideas
- Invisible hand
- Division of labor
- Impartial spectator
Teachers: Francis Hutcheson
Students: John Millar
Influence
Influenced by 4
Aristotle
influenced by
Smith ranked Aristotle’s virtue as a mean among the systems of propriety, saying it agrees ‘pretty exactly’ with his own account (The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759). A. Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759; 6th ed. 1790), part VII, sect. ii, ch. 1
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Hugo Grotius
influenced by
Ending The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Smith credited Grotius with the first attempt at a system of natural jurisprudence, which his own lectures took up. A. Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Part VII; Lectures on Jurisprudence, ed. R. L. Meek et al. (1978)
Evidence: AI draft
Hugo Grotius › 1583–1645
Francis Hutcheson studied with
studied with
Smith studied at Glasgow from 1737 to 1740 and attended Hutcheson’s lectures on moral philosophy; in 1787 he still spoke of ‘the never to be forgotten Dr Hutcheson’. A. Smith to A. Davidson, 16 Nov. 1787, in Correspondence of Adam Smith (Glasgow ed.); I. S. Ross, The Life of Adam Smith (1995)
Evidence: AI draft
Francis Hutcheson › 1694–1746
David Hume
influenced by
Smith developed Hume’s account of sympathy into the theory of moral judgement of The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), denying that utility is the first source of approval. A. Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Part IV; D. Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40); SEP “Adam Smith’s Moral and Political Philosophy”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
David Hume › 1711–1776
Influenced 7
Immanuel Kant
influenced
Marcus Herz called Smith Kant’s ‘favourite’ (letter of 1771); S. Fleischacker traces echoes of the Theory of Moral Sentiments in Kant’s moral philosophy. M. Herz to I. Kant, 9 July 1771; S. Fleischacker, “Philosophy in Moral Practice: Kant and Adam Smith”, Kant-Studien (1991)
Evidence: AI draft
Immanuel Kant › 1724–1804
John Millar taught
taught
Millar attended Smith’s lectures at Glasgow in the 1750s, became Professor of Civil Law there in 1761 and carried Smith’s historical account of society forward in his Observations concerning the Distinction of Ranks in Society (1771). J. Craig, “Account of the Life and Writings of John Millar”, in J. Millar, The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks (4th ed., 1806)
Evidence: AI draft
John Millar › 1735–1801
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
influenced
Hegel cited Smith’s pin factory on the division of labour in his Jena lectures (1803–04) and named Smith among the political economists in the Philosophy of Right (1820). G. W. F. Hegel, Jenaer Systementwürfe I (1803–04); Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts (1820); N. Waszek, The Scottish Enlightenment and Hegel’s Account of ‘Civil Society’ (1988)
Evidence: AI draft
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel › 1770–1831
Harriet Martineau
influenced
In Illustrations of Political Economy (1832–34) Martineau turned the doctrines of Smith, Malthus and Ricardo into monthly stories, popularising the division of labour and free trade. H. Martineau, Illustrations of Political Economy (1832–34); SEP “Adam Smith’s Moral and Political Philosophy”
Evidence: AI draft
Harriet Martineau › 1802–1876
Yan Fu
influenced
Yan Fu translated The Wealth of Nations as Yuanfu (1901–02) and argued in his commentary that freeing individual economic energies would strengthen the state. Yan Fu, Yuanfu (1901–02); B. Schwartz, In Search of Wealth and Power: Yen Fu and the West (1964)
Evidence: AI draft
Yan Fu › 1854–1921
Edvard Westermarck
influenced
Westermarck drew on Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments for the disinterestedness and apparent impartiality that make retributive emotions moral (Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, 1906–08). E. Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas (1906–08); O. Pipatti, Morality Made Visible: Edward Westermarck’s Moral and Social Theory (2019); SEP “Adam Smith’s Moral and Political Philosophy”
Evidence: AI draft
Edvard Westermarck › 1862–1939
Amartya Sen
influenced
Sen took up Smith’s impartial spectator for an ‘open impartiality’ that hears voices from afar, against Rawls’s closed contract (The Idea of Justice, 2009). A. Sen, The Idea of Justice (2009); introduction to A. Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (2009)
Evidence: AI draft
Amartya Sen › b. 1933
Criticism
Criticized by 4
Adam Ferguson
criticised by
Ferguson disputed Smith’s preference for a standing army over a citizen militia (letter of 1776) and, in a manuscript dialogue, his grounding of moral approval in sympathy. Ferguson to Smith, 1776, in The Correspondence of Adam Smith (Glasgow Edition, 1977); A. Ferguson, “Of the Principle of Moral Estimation”, ed. E. C. Mossner, Journal of the History of Ideas 21 (1960)
Evidence: AI draft
Adam Ferguson › 1723–1816
Sophie de Grouchy influenced
influenced
Grouchy translated Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments into French (1798), and her appended Letters on Sympathy accept his thesis that morality rests on sympathy. S. de Grouchy, tr., Théorie des sentiments moraux (1798), with Lettres sur la sympathie; ed. K. Brown, tr. J. E. McClellan III, Letters on Sympathy (2008)
Evidence: AI draft
criticised by
Grouchy’s Letters on Sympathy (1798), appended to her translation of Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, faulted Smith for not tracing sympathy to physical sensibility. S. de Grouchy, Lettres sur la sympathie (1798), Letter I; ed. K. Brown, tr. J. E. McClellan III, Letters on Sympathy (2008)
Evidence: AI draft
Sophie de Grouchy › 1764–1822
Karl Marx influenced
influenced
Marx worked through Smith on wages, profit and rent in the Paris Manuscripts (written 1844) and later built on his labour theory of value in Capital (1867). K. Marx, Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte (written 1844, printed 1932); Das Kapital I (1867); SEP “Karl Marx”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
criticised by
Marx credited Smith’s labour theory of value but criticised his ‘dogma’ that commodity prices resolve into wages, profit and rent, ignoring constant capital (Capital II, 1885, ch. 19). K. Marx, Das Kapital II (ed. Engels, 1885), ch. 19; Theorien über den Mehrwert I (1862–63), ch. 3
Evidence: AI draft
Karl Marx › 1818–1883
Friedrich Engels
criticised by
Engels called Smith the ‘economic Luther’ whose liberal economics replaced open mercantilist greed with hypocrisy, leaving private property unquestioned (Outlines of a Critique of Political Economy, 1844). F. Engels, “Umrisse zu einer Kritik der Nationalökonomie”, Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher (1844)
Evidence: AI draft
Friedrich Engels › 1820–1895
Criticizes 1
Bernard Mandeville
criticised
Smith called Mandeville’s system ‘wholly pernicious’: it treats every passion as vice and confuses the love of true praiseworthiness with vanity (Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759, VII.ii.4). A. Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), VII.ii.4 (“Of licentious systems”)
Evidence: AI draft
Bernard Mandeville › 1670–1733
Works
Sympathy and the impartial spectator.
The division of labor, the market and the invisible hand.
Position
Smith’s first great book explains morality through sympathy: we put ourselves in others’ place and judge our own conduct through the eyes of an “impartial spectator” within us. The Wealth of Nations then examines how prosperity arises. The division of labour multiplies productivity, and in free markets individuals pursuing their own interest are led, as if by an “invisible hand”, to promote the common good. Yet Smith warned of monopolies, collusion among merchants and the stultifying effects of monotonous work, and assigned the state essential tasks. The two works belong together: commercial society rests on moral sentiments. He is regarded as the founder of modern economics.
Life & context
Born in 1723 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, Adam Smith studied in Glasgow under Francis Hutcheson and at Oxford. As professor of moral philosophy in Glasgow he became a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment and a close friend of Hume. Travelling in France as a tutor, he met the physiocrats. He later served as a customs commissioner in Edinburgh and died there in 1790.
Further main works
- Essays on Philosophical Subjects (1795)
Appears in
- Journey ‘How Sociology Emerged from Philosophy’ · Stop 6 of 12
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