Question

HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT QUESTION:

3. According to Sedlacek, how is Smith’s concept of self interest consistent with his previous argument that “sympathy” is the foundation of a moral society?

Answer 1

An increasingly standard advice is that empathy and/or sympathy performs a foundational function in understanding harm norms and being inspired by means of them. On this paper, I argue these emotions play a rather extra moderate role in harms norms than we're regularly ended in think. Proof from people with frontal lobe harm means that neither empathy, nor sympathy is essential for the figuring out of such norms. Moreover, people's working out of why it's incorrect to harm varies and is not ever restrained to considerations of welfare arising from the competencies to sympathize and/or empathize. And the different types of issues of welfare which can be vital to sympathy and, to a point empathy, are ordinarily already moralized. As such, these issues cannot type the non-ethical groundwork of damage norms. Subsequently, empathy and sympathy should not the one emotions that inspire harm norms. Indeed, much of the proof that has been adduced in prefer of the motivational drive of empathy and sympathy are studies on helping, which is quite a further conduct than aggression inhibition. Working out and being prompted through harm norms are tricky talents. To comprehend them higher, we must move beyond the present fixation on empathy and sympathy.