Adam Smith’s Concept of ‘Propriety’: Its Meaning and Philosophical Implications

Leonidas Montes
Additional contact information
Leonidas Montes: Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez

Chapter 4 in Adam Smith in Context, 2004, pp 97-129 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The first part of The Theory of Moral Sentiments is fundamental to Adam Smith’s moral philosophy. It is peculiarly entitled ‘Of the Propriety of Action’. Throughout the TMS Smith repeatedly refers to ‘propriety of conduct’, to the idea of ‘acting with propriety’, and even to ‘love of propriety’. Moreover, in the last part of the TMS he celebrates some affinity between his moral approach with all ‘those Systems which make Virtue consist in Propriety’, that is, Plato, Aristotle and Zeno. But, what does he actually mean by ‘propriety’? Does it only correspond to the canonical understanding that views propriety as the attainment of a concordance of sentiments? Or in addition to the latter, is it simply an extension of Shaftesbury’s ‘politeness’, the Addisonian criterion for proper behaviour, as the mark of gentlemanliness? In this chapter I will re-examine Smith’s concept of propriety, arguing that it is also a complex and distinctively philosophical concept.

Keywords: Moral Worth; Original Emphasis; Philosophical Concept; Impartial Spectator; Classical Utilitarianism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:pal:palchp:978-0-230-50440-0_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230504400

DOI: 10.1057/9780230504400_4

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().