Adam Smith on Dignity and Equality

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7429900
AutoresRemy Debes (University of Memphis, autor correspondente)
Ano2012
Volume20
Fascículo1
Páginas109-140
Data de publicação2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0960-8788 • E-ISSN: 1469-3526
EditoraTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09608788.2011.651315
OpenAlexW1990738718
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9
Referências citadas9

Where exactly should we place Adam Smith in the cannon of classical liberalism? Smith's advocacy of free market economics and defence of religious liberty in The Wealth of Nations suffice for including him somewhere in that tradition.1 1I intend this historically. I grant there are good reasons to be sceptical about the ultimate fate of liberty in capitalist society (e.g. Marxist reasons and reasons based on various postmodern critiques of enlightenment ideology). Also, the designation 'free market' should be understood loosely, as most scholars now agree it is a mistake to identify Smith with thoroughgoing laissez-faire economics. The nature and extent of Smith's liberalism, however, remain up for debate. One recent trend has been to characterise Smith as a proponent of social liberalism. This includes those like Stephen Darwall, Samuel Fleischacker and Charles Griswold, who have drawn attention to a kind of descriptive moral egalitarianism in Smith.2 2Darwall, S., 'Sympathetic Liberalism: Recent Work on Adam Smith', Philosophy & Public Affairs, 28 (1999) No. 2: 139–64; Fleischacker, S., A Third Concept of Liberty (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999) and On Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004); and Griswold, C., Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Other major commentators holding some version of this view might include Raphael, D. D. The Impartial Spectator (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007) and Vivienne Brown, Adam Smith's Discourse: Canonicity, Commerce and Conscience (London: Routledge, 1994). Humans, Smith seems to hold, are naturally disposed to valuing one another under a conception of equality. But that is not all these scholars suggest. They have also hinted at something more contentious – the idea that, according to Smith, we value one another in a way resonant with contemporary notions of human dignity, conceived as the inherent value of persons grounding certain rights to, or restrictions on, treatment by others.3 3See e.g. Fleischacker (2004 Fleischacker, S. 2004. On Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Princeton: Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar]), 205; Darwall at 142, 156 and Griswold at 235–239. However, one must read Fleischacker carefully, for he also uses the adjectival 'dignified' to express Smith's concern with what is 'honourable' or 'respectable' about persons, which use does not obviously match up with the notion of inherent value (see e.g. p. 207). Darwall's argument includes by far the most explicit discussion of 'dignity' as I've defined it. But as Darwall's article is ostensibly a book review (albeit a substantive one that addresses three books at once, including Griswold's), it cannot be called a direct inquiry. Griswold never explicitly puts his interpretation in terms of 'dignity', but that is clearly what he is after. Thus Darwall also reads him that way. In saying so, these scholars have hit upon something remarkable. However, I also think their arguments in this respect are both indirect and incomplete. Consequently, the full import of Smith's view remains obscure. This essay aims to bring some clarity

Adam smith · Dignity · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Neoclassical economics · Political science · Theology · Law in Society and Culture · Multicultural Socio-Legal Studies · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Law · Philosophy