Impartiality through ‘Moral Optics’: Why Adam Smith revised David Hume's Moral Sentimentalism

Sentimentalism and Moral Dilemmas

It is sometimes said that certain hard moral choices constitute tragic moral dilemmas in which no available course of action is justifiable, and so the agent is blameworthy whatever she chooses. This paper criticizes a certain approach to the debate about moral dilemmas and considers the metaethical implications of the criticisms. The approach in question has been taken by many advocates as wel...

Adam Smith and the Stages of Moral Development

The writer explores Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, where Smith presents a rich and provocative account of morality. The writer offers an explication of Smith's moral psychology as a stage theory of moral development, with the intention of generating critical points on both mattes of detail and larger implications.

The Moralizing Distance in Adam Smith: The Theory of Moral Sentiments as Possible Praise of Commerce

Review of Jack Russell Weinstein ’ s Adam Smith ’ s pluralism : rationality , education , and the moral sentiments

Jack Russell Weinstein's new book sets itself two major tasks: to argue that Adam Smith offers " a coherent philosophy of education that permeates his system " (p. 216) and that Smith's thinking is interestingly attuned to the very modern problem of pluralism. The first strand of argument seeks to provide a way of reading Smith that demystifies some of the remaining ambiguity across his oeuvre....

The Moral High Ground: An Experimental Study of Spectator Impartiality

Recent developments in various branches of political science underscore the importance of empirical investigation of impartial views. This paper proposes and tests an empirical model of impartiality, inspired by Adam Smith (1759), that is based on the moral judgments of informed third parties (or spectators). The model predicts that spectatorship produces properties widely considered desirable ...