The perception of value

Adam Smith on the moral role of social research

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2398085
AutoresDavid Thacher (0000-0003-2618-877X, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen19
Número1
Páginas94-110
Fecha de publicación2016-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEuropean Journal of Social Theory (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1368-4310 • E-ISSN: 1461-7137
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1368431014567267
OpenAlexW2324046862
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas32

Scholars have sometimes argued that we should conceive of social research as a form of moral inquiry, at least in part, but none have made clear exactly how and why observational research can make a distinctive contribution to moral insight. Returning to an era before the modern distinction between social science and the humanities became entrenched, this article argues that Adam Smith provided a clear and forceful rationale for the moral role of social research, especially history. Smith believed that moral understanding relies on emotional reactions to richly described cases, preferably where our own interests are not at stake. These meditations on particular cases, in turn, provide the basis for moral generalizations that can inform future encounters with particular cases. This perspective led Smith (along with his friend David Hume) to the view that historical writing makes a more important contribution to moral understanding than abstract philosophy does. This article reconstructs Smith's arguments about the role of empirical observation in cultivating moral sensibility in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, his Lectures on Jurisprudence, and his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. It then connects his argument to contemporary ideas about the nature of moral understanding in philosophy and cognitive science

Epistemology · Moral disengagement · Moral psychology · Moral reasoning · Political science · Rhetoric · Sensibility · Social cognitive theory of morality · Sociology · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Law · Philosophy · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Psychology of Social Influence