Adam Smith's Discourse

Brown, Vivienne

doi:10.4324/9780203014868

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

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Section: The ‘Self’ In Self‐interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…According to Brown (1994: 217) it is extremely difficult to code ‘the overall structure of Smith's discourse’ through the tropes of unbridled egoism, the embrace of crass materialism and the repudiation of the common good, for instance, precisely because the stoic moral hierarchy underpinning his oeuvre suggests a rather different interpretation of key concepts such as ‘self’, ‘interest’ and ‘liberty’. The self‐love praised by Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments , for instance, is the very antithesis of the celebration of ‘unbridled egoism’ frequently ascribed to him by his critics.…”

Section: The ‘Self’ In Self‐interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The self‐love praised by Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments , for instance, is the very antithesis of the celebration of ‘unbridled egoism’ frequently ascribed to him by his critics. As Brown (1994: 94) argues such assumptions about the status of ‘self‐love’ and other related concepts overlooks their Stoic pedigree. As she makes clear, here ‘self‐love is akin to amour de soi , a caring for the self that is entirely consistent with moral behaviour’ (1994: 94).…”

Section: The ‘Self’ In Self‐interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In so doing, as a number of commentators have pointed out, they had recourse to certain tenets of Hellenistic philosophy, most notably Stoicism and Epicureanism (Oakeshott, 1975: 154-8;Oestreich, 1982;Hirschman, 1986;Tuck, 1993;Brown, 1994;Hunter, 2001). Brown (1994) and Force (2003), for instance, are simply among some of the latest scholars to point to neo-stoicism as the primary influence on Adam Smith's ethical thought. As is well known, the Stoics were centrally concerned with perturbations and disorders of the soul.…”

Section: Passions Interests and Personsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Which is the ‘Self’ in ‘Self-Interest’?

duGay

2005

The Sociological Review

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This article contends that homogenisation of the term 'self-interest' -in sociological and economic discourse -has resulted in many misconceptions about what particular doctrines of 'self-interest' were instituted to achieve at certain historical periods and in specific cultural milieux. At its worst, the article argues, this has led to a misunderstanding of the import of particular doctrines of self interest,which are read in terms of general tradition -such as that which views self-interested conduct as a natural faculty -rather than in terms of the context specific aims of those advocating them. The article attempts to show how, historically, there have been quite significant changes in the characterisation of the 'self' deemed to be 'selfinterested'. In particular, it focuses on the 'self' of certain early modern conceptions of self interest, and suggests this creation is best viewed not as a subjectivity transcendentally presupposed by experience, but as one historically cultivated to counter the exigencies of particular circumstances -the disaster of perpetual 'warre' in 17th century Europe -and to meet the purposes of a certain way of life -existence in the civitas.

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Section: The ‘Self’ In Self‐interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The ‘Self’ In Self‐interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The ‘Self’ In Self‐interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Passions Interests and Personsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Which is the ‘Self’ in ‘Self-Interest’?

duGay

2005

The Sociological Review

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“…This article is concerned with two of these different interpretations: first, that the main influence on Smith was Stoic philosophy (for example, Brown, 1994, Fitzgibbons, 1995; and second, that it was religion and the 'Design' of the Deity (for example, , Evensky, 1987, Pack, 1995. It will be argued that these two influences are in fact linked.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adam Smith, Stoicism and religion in the 18th century

Clarke

2000

History of the Human Sciences

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This article explores the influence of Stoicism and religion on Adam Smith. While other commentators have argued either that the main influence on Smith was Stoicism or that it was religion, the two influences have not been explicitly linked. In this article I attempt to make such a link, arguing that Smith can be seen as belonging to the strand of Christian Stoicism chiefly associated with his teacher, Francis Hutcheson. Finally, some comments are made about the implications of this interpretation for current understanding of the work of Adam Smith.

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Smith at 300: Adam Smith and the Idea of “Police”

Cunha

2023

J Hist Econ Thought

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“The more opulent therefore the society, labour will always be so much the dearer and work so much the cheaper, and if some opulent countries have lost several of their manufactures and some branches of their commerce by having been undersold in foreign markets by the traders and artisans of poorer countries, who were contented with less profit and smaller wages, this will rarely be found to have been merely the effect of the opulence of the one country and the poverty of the other. Some other cause, we may be assured, must have concurred. The rich country must have been guilty of some great error in its police.” ED 2.12–2.13

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Adam Smith's Discourse

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Which is the ‘Self’ in ‘Self-Interest’?

Which is the ‘Self’ in ‘Self-Interest’?

Adam Smith, Stoicism and religion in the 18th century

Smith at 300: Adam Smith and the Idea of “Police”

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