Remote Encounters of a Distant Kind: Natives and Westerners in Adam Smith’s International Thought

Jean Dellemotte () and Laurie Bréban ()
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Jean Dellemotte: PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Laurie Bréban: PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne

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Abstract: this paper focuses on Smith's treatment of the relationship between colonists and the colonized, an issue which has been examined mainly through the question of whether he was an anti-colonial thinker. Here, we adopt a distinct perspective by considering two ways of approaching the encounter between European Westerners on the one hand and American and African Natives on the other. First, the remote encounter between the philosopher and overseas populations he could only know from second hand sources, that is, the various comparisons Smith made between Natives and Westerners. We observe that, while considering European nations as much more economically advanced than "savage" and "barbarous" nations, Smith contrasts the superior self-command of the Native with the greater tendency to humanity and compassion of the "civilized" man. We then turn to the actual encounter between Natives and Westerners and observe that Smith was unequivocally critical of European colonialism, which he saw as essentially motivated by greed and dooming the conquered populations to "dreadful misfortunes". Lastly, we explain why, for Smith, Europeans lost their virtues of humanity through contact with the overseas populations, in other words, how their love of domination overrode sympathy, and how he envisions to overcome this issue.

Keywords: History of economic thought; Moral philosophy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-12-02
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Published in 11th conference of the Iberian Association of the History of Economic Thought, Dec 2022, Barcelona, Spain

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03949677

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