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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Human Nature: An Economic Perspective, Vernon L. Smith
Human Nature: An Economic Perspective, Vernon L. Smith
Economics Faculty Articles and Research
An economist writing on the topic of human nature is surely expected to talk about decision making by narrowly self-interested rational agents.
Sympathy And Approbation In Hume And Smith: A Solution To The Other Rational Species Problem, David M. Levy, Sandra J. Peart
Sympathy And Approbation In Hume And Smith: A Solution To The Other Rational Species Problem, David M. Levy, Sandra J. Peart
Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications
This paper examines a key implication of the different conceptions of sympathy and the approbation associated with sympathy in the writings of David Hume and Adam Smith. For Hume, sympathy is an empathy we feel for those like us and hence we are motivated to obtain the praise or approbation of those with whom we sympathize. In Hume’s construction there is a direct link from sympathy to motivation because sympathy is reflected self-love. By contrast, in Smith’s construction sympathy is an act of imagination which only habit makes motivational. The abstraction by our imagination means we earn the approbation (or …