Abstract

Robert Urquhart

Adam Smith’s Problems:  Individuality and the Paradox of Sympathy

This paper describes a paradox of sympathy in TMS.  In order to feel for another I must feel for myself, yet the impartial spectator requires me to look on myself impartially, from outside. The paradox is related to the tension between two views of individuality, one seeing individuals as engaged in necessary relations with each other; the other understanding the individual as an isolated being. The favoring of the latter view in WN is seen as showing both its link to TMS, and the difference between the two books.