Positive endogenous ethics: Smith's unique contribution to moral analysis

Amos Witztum

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: There are two elements which make Smith’s ethics unique as well as more universal in nature. The first is that it is a positive theory of ethics in the sense that it is not about what is intrinsically good or just as it is about the way in which people form their opinion about it. The second is that it is embedded in social context in the sense that what lies behind the way in which people form their moral opinion is socially dependent as well as related to the way in which people behave. From an exegetic point of view, this also helps in explaining the dissonance that may exist between Smith’s own views about morals and what he observes as the contemporary prevailing view. Applying this to his economic analysis will yield surprising conclusions which may explain why the Wealth of Nations cannot be seen as a moral advocacy of natural liberty.

Keywords: ethics; material inequality; social distance; sympathy; utility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 A13 A31 B12 B31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2023-12-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hpe and nep-upt
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Published in Journal of Contextual Economics-Schmollers Jahrbuch, 31, December, 2023, 143(1-4), pp. 25 - 46. ISSN: 2568-7603

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