Abstract

Lauren Brubaker

Smith’s Moderate Response to Rousseau

Raphael’s claim that Smith’s revisions in editions two and six of TMS merely place more emphasis on the impartiality of the spectator, while true, is misleading. What Smith needs is some motivation to act on this standard, especially when the approval of actual spectators cuts against the judgment of the impartial spectator. Smith’s revisions describe a love of our own nobility and dignity, a love as distinct from the desire for approval as the love of praise is from the desire to be praiseworthy. Thus Smith rejects Rousseau’s claim that modern man lives entirely in the sentiments of others. The resulting permanent tension in human nature undermines any simple claim of Smithian providentialism or spontaneous order.