His Memory has Misled Him? Two Supposed Errors in Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments

Jon Murphy and Andrew Humphries

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, vol. 184, issue C, 771-780

Abstract: D.D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie, the editors of the Glasgow Edition of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, document numerous errors made by Adam Smith. We examine two alleged errors, both regarding stories found in Cicero, to evaluate the extent to which they might be esoteric: one involving Parmenides and Plato, the other involving Ulysses. We argue there is good reason to suspect that the first error is deliberate and contains hidden meaning, but that, in the second case, Raphael and Macfie are mistaken in their claim that Smith erred. Finally, given Smith's discussion of dissimulation, we comment on his probable attitude toward defensive esotericism.

Keywords: Adam smith; Esotericism; Cicero; Parmenides; Plato; Ulysses; Virtue ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 B12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268120303164
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:184:y:2021:i:c:p:771-780

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.08.039

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization is currently edited by Houser, D. and Puzzello, D.

More articles in Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().