The Passion of Self‐interest: The Development of the Idea and Its Changing Status

Bruce B. Suttle

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 1987, vol. 46, issue 4, 459-472

Abstract: Abstract. Contemporaries who evoke the passion of self‐interest and cite Adam Smith as its most prominent defender have exhibited little appreciation for the speckled history of this passion. Moreover, they have demonstrated little awareness of how Smith did not view this passion as a virtue. Some of the major reasons are explained for the changes in our attitude toward self interest. A philosophical refutation of the thesis that self‐interest is our only motive for acting as we do is offered and the record is set straight on how Smith viewed the State's role in imposing limits on, and giving direction to, self‐interest as a testimony to man's failure at self‐legislation. Today the contenders for power—the special interests—are pitted against the guardians of public order.

Date: 1987
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