Abstract

John McHugh

Smith and Hume on the Sociality of the Self

Several commentators have noticed that Smith holds a social theory of the self.  This paper is an attempt to further explicate and defend this view, with an eye to the difference that it establishes between Smith and Hume.  The paper focuses on Smith’s and Hume’s respective uses of a mirror metaphor for self-reflection.  I argue that Smith’s use of this metaphor is deeper than Hume’s and that it invokes a different psychological explanation of praise.  I conclude by suggesting that these differences are further manifestations of the generally different aims of their moral theories and of the particular differences between their respective conceptions of sympathy.