No need for society: Adam Smith’s critique of pufendorf’s summa imbecillitas

Michele Bee and Ivan Sternick
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Michele Bee: CEDEPLAR/UFMG
Ivan Sternick: CEDEPLAR/UFMG

No 644, Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG from Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais

Abstract: The Scottish Enlighteners saw in Pufendorf the idea of a pre-government need-based sociability. This idea stemmed from a picture of the human condition as naturally destitute and powerless. Sociability therefore arose from the perception of the advantages given by cooperation and mutual assistance in overcoming this natural inability to provide for one’s own needs. Human beings became sociable through their self-love, understood as the interest in self-preservation. The idea of a principle of sociability independent of government was also crucial to Adam Smith’s conception of society. However, Smith sought to revise Pufendorf’s premises on human nature. Following Hutcheson, he considered them too close to Hobbes’ selfish system. As this article intends to show, for Smith sociability did not arise from need for the assistance of others, as it is often said, but from the desire for deserved esteem.

Keywords: Sociability; Division of Labour; Needs; Adam Smith; Samuel Pufendorf (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B10 B11 B12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 19 pages
Date: 2022-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-hpe
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