Classic from the year 2009 in the subject English - Literature, Works, language: English, abstract: Chap. I: Of Sympathy How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it. Of this kind is pity or compassion, the emotion which we feel for the misery of others, when we either see it, or are made to conceive it in a very lively ...
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Classic from the year 2009 in the subject English - Literature, Works, language: English, abstract: Chap. I: Of Sympathy How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it. Of this kind is pity or compassion, the emotion which we feel for the misery of others, when we either see it, or are made to conceive it in a very lively manner. That we often derive sorrow from the sorrow of others, is a matter of fact too obvious to require any instances to prove it; for this sentiment, like all the other original passions of human nature, is by no means confined to the virtuous and humane, though they perhaps may feel it with the most exquisite sensibility. The greatest ruffian, the most hardened violator of the laws of society, is not altogether without it. As we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are affected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation. Though our brother is upon the rack, as long as we ourselves are at our ease, our senses will never inform us of what he suffers. They never did, and never can, carry us beyond our own person, and it is by the imagination only that we can form any conception of what are his sensations. Neither can that faculty help us to this any other way, than by representing to us what would be our own, if we were in his case. It is the impressions of our own senses only, not those of his, which our imaginations copy. By the imagination we place ourselves in his situation, we conceive ourselves enduring all the same torments, we enter as it were into his body, and become in some measure the same person with him, and thence form some idea of his sensations, and even feel something which, though weaker in degree, is not altogether unlike them. His agonie
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Add this copy of The Theory of Moral Sentiments to cart. $107.01, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2009 by Grin Publishing.
Add this copy of The Theory of Moral Sentiments to cart. $141.98, new condition, Sold by Paperbackshop rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensenville, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by Grin Publishing.
Add this copy of The Theory of Moral Sentiments to cart. $167.98, new condition, Sold by Booksplease rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Southport, MERSEYSIDE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2009 by Grin Publishing.
While the current laissez-faire capitalists hold up Adam Smith as their model, the real Adam Smith was first and foremost a teacher of moral philosophy in his native Scotland. Read his ideas on natural and desirable human virtues such as sympathy. Contrast that with the real author of our current form of capitalism, Ayn Rand, who declared compassion a vice. Compare Smith's ideas on moral duties with Rand's derision of "do-gooders," as her followers call those who use their education to help others. Compare Smith's altruistic concern for the human condition and how to better the economic condition of all free people by concentrating on lifting ourselves out of miserable economic conditions and fostering the cooperation and peace needed for capitalism instead of devoting our lives to the constant European religious wars with which Smith was so familiar.
This book will give you the necessary insight into the vision of the future author of the Wealth of Nations and the world he hoped to foster. Contrast that with the highly SOLE and separate self-interest of Ayn Rand and you will begin to see how dangerous philosophies can be when their ideas are usurped by those who do not understand the philosophy or change it into something Smith would not recognize and I believe would find abhorrent, based on the ideas he presented in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Rand was scarred by almost dying in her flight from totalitarian communism and naturally reacted to government as "the enemy."
It is ironic that those who hold government to be their natural enemy think they are following Adam Smith, who was a government bureaucrat and believed government naturally provided some necessary services for the people that smaller fragmented entities could not provide or provide as efficiently! A must read for those interested but perhaps bewildered by their own economic condition and the conflicting moral messages sent by Smith vs. Rand.
