Samuel Fleischacker
Biographic Data
| ID | 1085697 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Samuel Fleischacker |
| GIVEN NAMES | Samuel |
| FAMILY NAME | Fleischacker |
| SIGNATURE | FLEISCHACKER S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Williams College, Williamstown, MA |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 30 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Once More unto the Breach: Kant and Race
The last thirty years has seen an explosion of literature on Kant and race. Once overlooked essays and notes in which Kant expresses contempt for nonwhite people and support for slavery have been brought to light, and many scholars have wrestled with the question of how a philosopher who stressed the equal dignity of all human beings could hold such views. This article tries to reframe the debate over these issues. It begins by reviewing the raci…
Holiness, in Particular: A Proposal for Understanding Qedushah
Beginning from an intriguing essay by the mid‐twentieth century Jewish thinker Leon Roth, I offer here an account of what “holiness” might mean for Jews by moving between readings of specifically Jewish texts and a series of general desiderata for any account of holiness. My proposal involves attending closely to but also moving away from the particulars of God’s world. Holiness consists in this process, not in any of the particulars themselves. …
From Traditions to “Cultures”
Beyond Universalism
The Ethics of Culture
Western philosophy since the Enlightenment has had little to say about everyday ethical problems, whereas modern anthropology has simply accepted culture as the source of people's ethical beliefs. In this engaging book, Samuel Fleischacker explores episodes of moral crisis from Hitler's Holocaust to Pol Pot's killing fields to Khomeini's death sentence on Salman Rushdie. As he integrates the perspectives of philosophy and anthropology, Fleischack…
Empathy and the Limits of Utilitarianism (II)
Joshua Greene and Jonathan Haidt have proposed that utilitarianism provides us with the common moral currency that every pluralistic society needs for public discourse. This chapter argues that utilitarianism cannot in fact supply such a currency, but Smithian empathy can. The weaknesses of utilitarianism are surveyed, especially its elitist qualities and its inability to spell out, in a plausible yet substantive manner, what counts as “happiness…
Empathy and Culture
For all the room that Smith makes for human difference, many social scientists will see Smith as too universalist for their taste. Why suppose that we can enter into the circumstances of any and every other human being? The very capacity for universal empathy that Smith presupposes is likely to be rejected by those who favor hermeneutic approaches to social science, for whom understanding other cultures takes more than imagining ourselves, thickl…
Empathy and the Limits of Utilitarianism (I)
Chapter 7 takes up Bloom’s and Prinz’s praise for cool rationality over a reliance on empathy, something they share with other contemporary theorists of the moral emotions. At bottom, this praise reflects a view on which people do best to follow a utilitarian calculus in their individual moral actions and in public policy—to seek simply to minimize harms and maximize happiness. This chapter stresses the difficulties in spelling out what counts as…
Empathy and Demonization
If Smithian empathy is central to our humanity, then closing off empathy to others, and seeing them as closed to empathy, is a way of dehumanizing them. That is precisely what enabled people to regard Jews as diabolical, in former years, and what enables them to see many of their political enemies that way today. Demonization is very common in the modern world but is rarely theorized. A theoretical account of demonization is proposed here that we…
Smithian Empathy
Chapter two explores Smithian empathy in detail. For Smith, empathy has cognitive content. As against Hume, who had seen empathy as spreading automatically from one human being to another, Smith thought that it requires us to enter in imagination into the circumstances of others. We thereby gain insight into what it is like to occupy their perspectives. In fact, this entering of others’ perspectives is essential to learning what it is to have a p…
Updating Smith
Chapter 3 brings Smithian empathy into conversation with contemporary empirical research and moral theory. It takes up a somewhat disparate array of topics, beginning with the relationship of Smith’s work to theories in cognitive psychology and the philosophy of mind, and moving from there to empirical work on novel-reading and empathy, psychotherapy and empathy, the nexus between empathy and altruism, and the question of whether animals have emp…
Utilitarianism and the Limits of Empathy
The subject of bias remains relevant in chapter 6, which begins an extended response to the critiques of empathy launched recently by Jesse Prinz and Paul Bloom. Prinz and Bloom stress the partiality of our empathetic caring, pointing out in addition that it can lead us to desire harsh revenge on behalf of the people we care for, and can overwhelm our rational capacities in circumstances where cool calculation is essential to finding fair or effe…
Being Me Being You: Adam Smith and Empathy
Being Me Being You: Adam Smith and Empathy
Modern notions of empathy often celebrate its ability to bridge divides, to unite humankind. But how do we square this with the popular view that we can never truly comprehend the experience of being someone else? In this book, Samuel Fleischacker delves into the work of Adam Smith to draw out an understanding of empathy that respects both personal difference and shared humanity. After laying out a range of meanings for the concept of empathy, Fl…
Adam Smith on Equality
This chapter surveys recent literature arguing for and against the view that Smith was deeply egalitarian, and then examines both the elements of Smith’s texts that lend support to such a view, and the elements that militate against it. It concludes by considering various different senses in which one might be an egalitarian—distinguishing the belief in moral equality from a belief in political equality, and both from a belief in socio-economic e…
What is Enlightenment
"Have the courage to use your own understanding! - that is the motto of enlightenment." - Immanuel Kant The Enlightenment is one of the most important and contested periods in the history of philosophy. The problems it addressed, such as the proper extent of individual freedom and the challenging of tradition, resonate as much today as when they were first debated. Of all philosophers, it is arguably Kant who took such questions most seriously, a…
Adam Smith and cultural relativism
This paper explores the presence of both relativistic and universalistic elements in Adam Smith’s moral philosophy. It argues that Smith is more sympathetic to the concerns of anthropologists than most philosophers have been, but still tries to uphold the possibility of moral judgments that transcend cultural contexts. It also argues that the tensions between these aspects of his thought are not easy to resolve, but that Smith’s sensitivity to th…
Divine Teaching and the Way of the World: A Defense of Revealed Religion
Samuel Fleischacker offers a defense of 'revealed religion' - religions that regard a certain text or teaching as wholly authoritative over one's life. By reconciling it with secular cognitive and moral practices that allow people to work together, he shows how these two worldviews can be brought together
Essays on the Philosophy of Adam Smith
The philosophy of Adam Smith: Essays commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Theory of moral sentiments
On Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations": A Philosophical Companion
Adam Smith was a philosopher before he ever wrote about economics, yet until now there has never been a philosophical commentary on the Wealth of Nations . Samuel Fleischacker suggests that Smith's vastly influential treatise on economics can be better understood if placed in the light of his epistemology, philosophy of science, and moral theory. He lays out the relevance of these aspects of Smith's thought to specific themes in the Wealth of Nat…
Response to Den Uyl
A Short History of Distributive Justice
Adam Smith's Reception among the American Founders, 1776-1790
thought on the American founding, curiously little attention has been paid to the influence of Adam Smith. Brilliant, if speculative, arguments have been made for the influence of Francis Hutcheson on Thomas Jefferson's thought in the Declaration of Independence, of David Hume on James Madison's conception of the Constitution, and of Thomas Reid on James Wilson's jurisprudence. No comparable inquiry has been conducted into the importance of Smith…
A Third Concept of Liberty: Judgment and Freedom in Kant and Adam Smith
Philosophy in Moral Practice: Kant and Adam Smith
Adam Smith's Reception among the American Founders, 1776-1790
thought on the American founding, curiously little attention has been paid to the influence of Adam Smith. Brilliant, if speculative, arguments have been made for the influence of Francis Hutcheson on Thomas Jefferson's thought in the Declaration of Independence, of David Hume on James Madison's conception of the Constitution, and of Thomas Reid on James Wilson's jurisprudence. No comparable inquiry has been conducted into the importance of Smith…
From Cultural Diversity to Universal Ethics: Three Models
In this article the author lays out and discusses three different models for arriving at universal agreement in ethics. The author argues that the 'human rights model'-the model by which international human rights instruments get produced-has some serious flaws. The second model is the 'necessary conditions model'. It enables us to arrive at a significant but still too thin universal ethic. The author presents a case for the 'cultural dialogue mo…
Philosophy in Moral Practice: Kant and Adam Smith
Multiculturalism as a Western Tradition
The Ethics of Culture
A Third Concept of Liberty: Judgment and Freedom in Kant and Adam Smith
A third concept of liberty: Judgment and freedom in Kant and Adam Smith
From Cultural Diversity to Universal Ethics: Three Models
In this article the author lays out and discusses three different models for arriving at universal agreement in ethics. The author argues that the 'human rights model'-the model by which international human rights instruments get produced-has some serious flaws. The second model is the 'necessary conditions model'. It enables us to arrive at a significant but still too thin universal ethic. The author presents a case for the 'cultural dialogue mo…
A Third Concept of Liberty: Judgment and Freedom in Kant and Adam Smith
Adam Smith's Reception among the American Founders, 1776-1790
thought on the American founding, curiously little attention has been paid to the influence of Adam Smith. Brilliant, if speculative, arguments have been made for the influence of Francis Hutcheson on Thomas Jefferson's thought in the Declaration of Independence, of David Hume on James Madison's conception of the Constitution, and of Thomas Reid on James Wilson's jurisprudence. No comparable inquiry has been conducted into the importance of Smith…
A Short History of Distributive Justice
Response to Den Uyl
On Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations": A Philosophical Companion
Adam Smith was a philosopher before he ever wrote about economics, yet until now there has never been a philosophical commentary on the Wealth of Nations . Samuel Fleischacker suggests that Smith's vastly influential treatise on economics can be better understood if placed in the light of his epistemology, philosophy of science, and moral theory. He lays out the relevance of these aspects of Smith's thought to specific themes in the Wealth of Nat…
Essays on the Philosophy of Adam Smith
The philosophy of Adam Smith: Essays commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Theory of moral sentiments
Adam Smith and cultural relativism
This paper explores the presence of both relativistic and universalistic elements in Adam Smith’s moral philosophy. It argues that Smith is more sympathetic to the concerns of anthropologists than most philosophers have been, but still tries to uphold the possibility of moral judgments that transcend cultural contexts. It also argues that the tensions between these aspects of his thought are not easy to resolve, but that Smith’s sensitivity to th…
Divine Teaching and the Way of the World: A Defense of Revealed Religion
Samuel Fleischacker offers a defense of 'revealed religion' - religions that regard a certain text or teaching as wholly authoritative over one's life. By reconciling it with secular cognitive and moral practices that allow people to work together, he shows how these two worldviews can be brought together
Adam Smith on Equality
This chapter surveys recent literature arguing for and against the view that Smith was deeply egalitarian, and then examines both the elements of Smith’s texts that lend support to such a view, and the elements that militate against it. It concludes by considering various different senses in which one might be an egalitarian—distinguishing the belief in moral equality from a belief in political equality, and both from a belief in socio-economic e…
What is Enlightenment
"Have the courage to use your own understanding! - that is the motto of enlightenment." - Immanuel Kant The Enlightenment is one of the most important and contested periods in the history of philosophy. The problems it addressed, such as the proper extent of individual freedom and the challenging of tradition, resonate as much today as when they were first debated. Of all philosophers, it is arguably Kant who took such questions most seriously, a…
Empathy and the Limits of Utilitarianism (II)
Joshua Greene and Jonathan Haidt have proposed that utilitarianism provides us with the common moral currency that every pluralistic society needs for public discourse. This chapter argues that utilitarianism cannot in fact supply such a currency, but Smithian empathy can. The weaknesses of utilitarianism are surveyed, especially its elitist qualities and its inability to spell out, in a plausible yet substantive manner, what counts as “happiness…
Empathy and Culture
For all the room that Smith makes for human difference, many social scientists will see Smith as too universalist for their taste. Why suppose that we can enter into the circumstances of any and every other human being? The very capacity for universal empathy that Smith presupposes is likely to be rejected by those who favor hermeneutic approaches to social science, for whom understanding other cultures takes more than imagining ourselves, thickl…
Empathy and the Limits of Utilitarianism (I)
Chapter 7 takes up Bloom’s and Prinz’s praise for cool rationality over a reliance on empathy, something they share with other contemporary theorists of the moral emotions. At bottom, this praise reflects a view on which people do best to follow a utilitarian calculus in their individual moral actions and in public policy—to seek simply to minimize harms and maximize happiness. This chapter stresses the difficulties in spelling out what counts as…
Empathy and Demonization
If Smithian empathy is central to our humanity, then closing off empathy to others, and seeing them as closed to empathy, is a way of dehumanizing them. That is precisely what enabled people to regard Jews as diabolical, in former years, and what enables them to see many of their political enemies that way today. Demonization is very common in the modern world but is rarely theorized. A theoretical account of demonization is proposed here that we…
Smithian Empathy
Chapter two explores Smithian empathy in detail. For Smith, empathy has cognitive content. As against Hume, who had seen empathy as spreading automatically from one human being to another, Smith thought that it requires us to enter in imagination into the circumstances of others. We thereby gain insight into what it is like to occupy their perspectives. In fact, this entering of others’ perspectives is essential to learning what it is to have a p…
Updating Smith
Chapter 3 brings Smithian empathy into conversation with contemporary empirical research and moral theory. It takes up a somewhat disparate array of topics, beginning with the relationship of Smith’s work to theories in cognitive psychology and the philosophy of mind, and moving from there to empirical work on novel-reading and empathy, psychotherapy and empathy, the nexus between empathy and altruism, and the question of whether animals have emp…
Utilitarianism and the Limits of Empathy
The subject of bias remains relevant in chapter 6, which begins an extended response to the critiques of empathy launched recently by Jesse Prinz and Paul Bloom. Prinz and Bloom stress the partiality of our empathetic caring, pointing out in addition that it can lead us to desire harsh revenge on behalf of the people we care for, and can overwhelm our rational capacities in circumstances where cool calculation is essential to finding fair or effe…
Being Me Being You: Adam Smith and Empathy
Philosophy (17 works) · Epistemology (16 works) · Political science (15 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Law (14 works) · Political Philosophy and Ethics (11 works) · Economics (10 works) · Adam smith (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Empathy (7 works)