Peer Review and the Development of the Impartial Spectator

Craig Smith

Econ Journal Watch, 2016, vol. 13, issue 2, 324–329

Abstract: The impartial spectator is one of the central concepts of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments. This paper examines the origins of the impartial spectator in Smith’s response to a criticism leveled by certain of his peers at the first edition of TMS. It argues that many of the key aspects and functions of the impartial spectator can best be understood as Smith’s attempt to deal with Gilbert Elliot’s charge that his theory collapses into moral conventionalism.

Keywords: Adam Smith; Theory of Moral Sentiments; impartial spectator; philosophy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 B12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://econjwatch.org/File+download/917/SmithCMay2016.pdf?mimetype=pdf (application/pdf)
https://econjwatch.org/1024 (text/html)

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:ejw:journl:v:13:y:2016:i:2:p:324-329

Access Statistics for this article

Econ Journal Watch is currently edited by Daniel Klein

More articles in Econ Journal Watch from Econ Journal Watch Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jason Briggeman ().