Adam Smith’s Moral and Political Philosophy

Adam Smith developed a comprehensive and somewhat unusual version of moral sentimentalism in his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759, TMS). He did not expressly lay out a political philosophy in similar detail, but a distinctive set of views on politics can be extrapolated from elements of both TMS and his Wealth of Nations (1776, WN); student notes from his lectures on jurisprudence (1762–1763, LJ) have also helped flesh out his thoughts on governance. A central thread running through his work is an unusually strong commitment to the soundness of the ordinary human being’s judgments, and a concern to fend off attempts, by philosophers and policy-makers, to replace those judgments with the supposedly better “systems” invented by intellectuals. In his “History of Astronomy”, he characterizes philosophy as a discipline that attempts to connect and regularize the data of everyday experience (Smith 1795: 44–7); in TMS, he tries to develop moral theory out of ordinary moral judgments, rather than beginning from a philosophical vantage point above those judgments; and a central polemic of WN is directed against the notion that government officials need to guide the economic decisions of ordinary people. Perhaps taking a cue from David Hume’s skepticism about the capacity of philosophy to replace the judgments of common life, Smith is suspicious of philosophy as conducted from a foundationalist standpoint, outside the modes of thought and practice it examines. Instead, he maps common life from within, correcting it where necessary with its own tools rather than trying either to justify or to criticize it from an external standpoint. He aims indeed to break down the distinction between theoretical and ordinary thought. This intellectual project is not unconnected with his political interest in guaranteeing to ordinary individuals the “natural liberty” to act in accordance with their own judgments.

via Adam Smith’s Moral and Political Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

via The Sophists (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

PassMyWill is a free service that will check in with Facebook and Twitter to see if you’re alive and posting updates, if you don’t appear to be active, it will send you an email to confirm your death, then it sends out emails to everyone on your list if you don’t respond. You can include whatever passwords you like, whether it’s email, Facebook or anything else. It’s not just willfully giving out passwords though, recipients will need a key to unlock them, which you’ll have to give to them before you pass on.

via PassMyWill Sends Out Your Passwords After You Die.

via Social Norms (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

Mission

Elevate Difference is a forum for thoughtful critique that aims to embody the myriad—and sometimes conflicting—viewpoints present in the struggle for political, social, and economic justice. Elevate Difference offers fluid and dynamic perspectives on various items and events that represent the rich differences found in progressive communities.

Vision

Emerging from the desire to dismantle progressive movements that privilege assimilation to one school of thought over another, Elevate Difference intends to make the value of difference more visible. We seek to move beyond a facile tolerance of difference that eschews its merit in favor of focusing on common ground. We believe the ways we are dissimilar should be foregrounded, engaged, and deemed of equal worth. Elevate Difference provides a challenge to ourselves and to our readers, a reflection of our ideological paradigms, and a command to reframe our actions.

Editorial Collective

Alicia Izharuddin, Andrea Dulanto, Annette Przygoda, Barbara Barrow, Brittany Shoot, Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch, Farhana Uddin, Gita Tewari, Gwen Emmons, Mandy Van Deven, Payal Patel, Priyanka Nandy, Tina Vasquez

Elevate Difference was formerly known as Feminist Review.

via About | Elevate Difference.

Given that we all begin our lives as children, it is perhaps surprising that philosophy has paid such little attention, relatively speaking, to childhood. This week, we meet the American philosopher and psychologist Alison Gopnik, who argues that in some ways young children are actually smarter, more imaginative, more caring and even more conscious than adults are.

via Philosophers Zone – 29 January 2011 – The Philosophical Baby – Alison Gopnik.

January 16: Derrida and Deconstruction

Jacques Derrida was one of the most influential and also one of the most polarizing philosophers of the twentieth century.  With his method of “deconstruction,” Derrida provided critiques not only of literary trends and philosophical ideas but also political institutions.  He won many followers among humanists, but analytical philosophers tended to be skeptical that Deconstructionism was anything more than a fancy name for a mélange of half-understood ideas.  John and Ken take on Derrida and his ideas with Joshua Kates from Indiana University, author of Fielding Derrida: Deconstruction in the Fields of Philosophy, History, and Beyond.

via Philosophy Talk.