scholarly journals Does Friendship Stem from Altruism? Adam Smith and the Distinction between Love-based and Interest-based Preferences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elias Khalil
Keyword(s):  
Adam Smith ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
The Other ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Moral Sentiments ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Theory Of Moral Sentiments

Forthcoming in "Journal of the history of economic thought" in 2003 or 2004 Abstract: Friendship-and-love expresses musings about wellbeing—while “wellbeing” is the economist’s substantive satisfaction. Insofar as altruism is about wellbeing, it must differ from friendship-and-love. However, what is the basis of the difference between substantive satisfaction and friendship-and-love? The answer can be found in Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, chapter 2: how “mutual sympathy” differs from “sympathy.” Smith scholars generally miss the uniqueness of “mutual sympathy” and, indeed, fold it under Smith’s “sympathy” (and “empathy”)—with one exception. Robert Sugden highlights the uniqueness of mutual sympathy. However, he goes to the other end, i.e., folds it under Smith’s sympathy-and-empathy”. This paper aims to avoid the folding in either direction. While mutual sympathy originates love-based sociality (friendship-and-love), sympathy-and-empathy originates interest-based sociality (wellbeing that includes altruism). This paper concludes that friendship is neither reducible to altruism nor vice versa. Further, this paper distinguishes this problem from the question regarding the socialization of the individual.

The Early History of Financial Economics, 1478–1776. By Geoffrey Poitras. Cheltenham and Northampton: Edward Elgar, 2000. Pp. x, 522.

2002 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 268-269
Author(s):  
Larry Neal
Keyword(s):  
Economic History ◽  
Financial Analysis ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Financial History ◽  
X 522 ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Wealth Of Nations ◽  
Simon Fraser University

Economic historians usually have to explain to their economist colleagues the difference between economic history, which focuses on facts, and history of economic thought, which focuses on ideas. Our colleagues in finance departments, typically fascinated by episodes in financial history treated by economic historians, are bound to be disappointed in the lack of attention given to the development of ideas in finance by historians of economic thought. Geoffrey Poitras, a professor of finance at Simon Fraser University, makes a valiant effort to remedy these oversights in his collection of vignettes that highlight the sophistication of financial instruments and analysts of financial markets well before the time of Adam Smith. Starting in 1478 with the publication of the Treviso Arithmetic, a typical textbook of commercial arithmetic for Italian merchants, and ending with brief snippets from the Wealth of Nations, Poitras treats the reader to a fascinating potpourri of excerpts from various manuals, brief biographies of pioneers in financial analysis, and historical discursions on foreign-exchange and stock markets.

scholarly journals A Few Remarks on Adam Smith’s Dissertation (1761)

1977 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Noordegraaf
Keyword(s):  
Adam Smith ◽  
French Translation ◽  
Moral Sentiments ◽  
The Third ◽  
History Of Linguistics ◽  
History Of ◽  
Theory Of Moral Sentiments

Summary In 1761 Adam Smith (1723–90) published his Dissertation on the Origin of Languages. Erroneously scholars have thought that this essay appeared as a supplement to the second edition of Smith’s book The Theory of Moral Sentiments of the same year; in fact it was only added to the third edition of that work (1767). Against Coseriu’s opinion that Adam Smith must be considered as a pioneer of the typology of language, one can put forward that Smith’s ideas on the typology of language are very similar to those of the French Abbé Gabriel Girard (1677–1748), whose influence is admitted by Smith himself. On another point, it turns out that before 1809, the year in which J. Manget published a French translation of Smith’s Dissertation, already three other translations into French of the same work had appeared. First-hand inspection of texts appears desirable in the writing of the history of linguistics.

‘Of the Expence of Defence’: What Has Changed Since Adam Smith?

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurgen Brauer
Keyword(s):  
Adam Smith ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Military Security ◽  
History Of

AbstractThis essay selectively reviews the history of economic thought on war and peace, starting with Adam Smith. Today, Smith’s trickle of thoughts has become a broad marshland. In this marshland, however, discrete currents are apparent – some stronger, some weaker – which this essay identifies, in rough chronological order, as war, defense, conflict, military, security, and peace economics. As these terms often are used interchangeably, one purpose of the essay is to more clearly delineate these intellectual currents and differentiate them from each other. By building canals in the marshlands as it were, the aim is to help all flows of contributions become stronger.

scholarly journals What’s the problem, Mr. Smith? Shedding more light (than Heat) on Adam Smith’s view of man *

2018 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Emmanoel de Oliveira Boff
Keyword(s):  
Adam Smith ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Moral Sentiments ◽  
Impartial Spectator ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Wealth Of Nations ◽  
Theory Of Moral Sentiments

Abstract Why has the “Adam Smith Problem” recently been discussed in the literature? Although most historians of economic thought regard the problem solved, these discussions cast doubt on this apparent solution. This article suggests that the “Adam Smith Problem” may originate from the concept of the human being developed by Smith in the “Theory of Moral Sentiments”: in this book, human beings can be understood as composed of an empirical and a (quasi) transcendental side, in the form of the impartial spectator. It is argued that it is the tension between these two parts which creates supposed inconsistencies between aspects of the “Theory of Moral Sentiments” and the “Wealth of Nations” like, for example, the role of sympathy and self-interest in each of these books.

Are there Limits to the Past in the History of Economic Thought?

1991 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Todd Lowry
Keyword(s):  
Adam Smith ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
The Past ◽  
Hard Time ◽  
History Of

When I first began the serious study of the history of economic thought, my presumption was that one should always start at the beginning. This was some thirty-five years ago and I have been finding so much interesting material that I have had a hard time getting past Adam Smith. The search for the beginning, of course, led me to the question of what do we mean by economic thought and how do we define it for the purpose of identifying its origin?.

scholarly journals Ethonomics & the History of Economic Thought

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (5) ◽  
pp. 223-232
Author(s):  
Ahmad Jafari Samimi
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
The Other ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
History Of ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Relationship

The purpose of this paper is to survey the relationship between economics and ethics in the history of economic thought. So the descriptive methodology of research is applied to find study and analyze the references which have been written about the matter. The conclusion shows that economics not only hasn’t been detached from ethics, but also has been the subdirectory of ethics in the beginning. In the other word economics grew out of moral philosophy and eventually became one of the moral sciences but these two sciences detached from each other as times go on, and this detachment is not part of the tradition of economics.

scholarly journals Journal of the History of Economic Thought Preprints – The Pleasure of Exchange: Adam Smith's Third Kind of Self-Love

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Bee
Keyword(s):  
Mutual Recognition ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
The Self ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Moral Sentiments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Economic Relationship ◽  
Wealth Of Nations ◽  
The Way

This article argues that the self-love that motivates exchange in The Wealth of Nations (WN) can be seen as the desire for deserved approval discussed by Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). This often overlooked desire appears in TMS as the most representative kind of self-love. Exchange motivated by this desire emerges as the way to find confirmation through others’ appraisal of one’s own self-assessment, and thus to find an agreed measure for respective deserved praise. The target in this economic relationship is the equivalence which signals mutual recognition of deserved esteem. Equivalence here is the aim and not the result of exchange, unlike a tug-of-war, where both parties try to give as little and gain as much as possible regardless of the recognition each deserves.

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