Abstract

Patricio Fernandez and Nicholas Teh

Adam Smith, Response-Dependence, and Objectivity

We focus on Adam Smith’s notion of moral objectivity implicit in TMS and interpret it as a peculiar kind of response-dependent account of moral properties, which attempts to strike a middle ground between standard models of mind-independent objectivity, on the one hand, and cultural value-relativism, on the other. The pressure to fall into one of those extremes is borne out by the tensions at work in Smith’s conception of an impartial spectator. We evaluate Smith’s proposal in the light of recent challenges to response-dependent accounts of morality and consider how a certain notion of “nature” is playing, or should play, a role in an effective response to those challenges.