Learning from Adam Smith: Propriety in Individual Choice, Moral Judgment, and Politics
Date
2015
Authors
Mueller, Paul D.
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Abstract
This dissertation explores and develops several important themes in Adam Smith's thought. Firstly, it explores the relationship between happiness and consumption. Smith thought that consumption was a necessary but not a sufficient condition for happiness. Virtue is also necessary. Secondly, it examines how Smith's moral theory works better or worse depending on the context. At low levels of concrete context, sympathy and moral judgment work remarkably well. At high levels of context involving macrocosms, however, there is no literal impartial spectator and our moral judgments are far more prone to error and corruption. Thirdly, it comments on a debate over how Smith viewed political actors and government intervention. Rather than being naive about the motives of political actors, Smith had a realistic and skeptical view of them; thus supporting a strong presumption of liberty that could only be overruled under special circumstances. Smith also recognized that political actors are moral agents and encouraged them to advance universal benevolence by resisting the influence of special interest groups.
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Economics, Political Science, Philosophy, Adam Smith, Consumption, Happiness, Moral Judgment, Public Choice