Adam Smith and Rousseau
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Edited by Maria Pia Paganelli, Edited by Maria Pia Paganelli, Edited by Maria Pia Paganelli, Dennis C. Rasmussen Dennis C. Rasmussen Edinburgh Studies in Scottish Philosophy and Craig Smith Dennis C. Rasmussen and Craig Smith Series Editor: Gordon Graham ‘This excellent volume deepens our understanding of the relationship between the ideas and arguments of Smith and Rousseau, and succeeds in making it clear that our understanding Adam Smith of each of these hugely important philosophers depends to a significant extent on our understanding of the other.’ James Harris, University of St Andrews and Rousseau Looks at all aspects of the pivotal intellectual relationship between two key figures of the Adam Smith and Rousseau Enlightenment Ethics, Politics, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) and Adam Smith (1723–1790) are two of the foremost thinkers of the European Enlightenment, thinkers who made seminal contributions to moral and political philosophy and who shaped some of the key concepts of modern Economics political economy. Though we have no solid evidence that they met in person, we do know that they shared many friends and interlocutors, particularly David Hume, who was Smith’s closest intellectual associate and who arranged for Rousseau’s stay in England in 1766. This collection brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of Adam Smith and Rousseau scholars to explore the key shared concerns of these two great thinkers in politics, philosophy, economics, history and literature. Maria Pia Paganelli is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. Dennis C. Rasmussen is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Tufts University. Craig Smith is Adam Smith Lecturer in the Scottish Enlightenment in the School of Social and Political Sciences at The University of Glasgow. Cover image: Adam Smith bust © University of Glasgow photography unit. Jean Jacques Rousseau bust, licensed under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Cover design: Stuart Dalziel Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting- edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © editorial matter and organisation Maria Pia Paganelli, Dennis C. Rasmussen and Craig Smith, 2018 © the chapters their several authors, 2018 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road, 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 11 /13 Adobe Sabon by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound in Great Britain. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 2285 7 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 2286 4 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 2287 1 (epub) The right of Maria Pia Paganelli, Dennis C. Rasmussen and Craig Smith to be identified as the editors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Contents Acknowledgements vii Citations and Abbreviations viii Series Editor’s Introduction x Part I Adam Smith and Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1. Introduction 3 Maria Pia Paganelli, Dennis C. Rasmussen and Craig Smith 2. On the Place of Politics in Commercial Society 16 Ryan Patrick Hanley 3. Rousseau and the Scottish Enlightenment: Connections and Disconnections 32 Mark Hulliung Part II Self-interest and Sympathy 4. The Role of Interpersonal Comparisons in Moral Learning and the Sources of Recognition Respect: Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s amour-propre and Adam Smith’s Sympathy 55 Christel Fricke 5. Actors and Spectators: Rousseau’s Contribution to the Eighteenth-century Debate on Self-interest 80 Mark J. Hill vi Contents 6. Pursuing Sympathy without Vanity: Interpreting Smith’s Critique of Rousseau through Smith’s Critique of Mandeville 109 John McHugh Part III Moral Sentiments and Spectatorship 7. Adam Smith and Jean-Jacques Rousseau on the Vices of the Marketplace 127 Michael Schleeter 8. Julie’s Garden and the Impartial Spectator: An Examination of Smithian Themes in Rousseau’s La Nouvelle Héloïse 143 Tabitha Baker 9. Sentimental Conviction: Rousseau’s Apologia and the Impartial Spectator 166 Adam Schoene Part IV Commercial Society and Justice 10. Being and Appearing: Self-falsification, Exchange and Freedom in Rousseau and Adam Smith 185 Charles L. Griswold 11. Citizens, Markets and Social Order: An Aristotelian Reading of Smith and Rousseau on Justice 214 Jimena Hurtado Part V Politics and Freedom 12. Smith, Rousseau and the True Spirit of a Republican 241 Dennis C. Rasmussen 13. Left to Their Own Devices: Smith and Rousseau on Public Opinion and the Role of the State 260 Jason Neidleman 14. ‘Savage Patriotism’, Justice and Cosmopolitics in Smith and Rousseau 284 Neil Saccamano Notes on Contributors 313 Index 317 Citations and Abbreviations This volume uses the author/date in-text citation style with two exceptions. Scholars of Adam Smith have adopted a standard cita- tion system to the Glasgow Edition of the Works of Adam Smith, published in hardback by Oxford University Press and in paper- back by Liberty Fund Press, Indianapolis, and we have used this system in citations of Smith throughout the volume. Details of the standard abbreviations appear below. For Rousseau, in the absence of a universally agreed standard English translation, we allowed the authors to select their own preferred translations (or indeed to make their own). In each case a note is offered to explain the editions and translations used. In several cases the citations are accompanied by reference to the French-language Œuvres complètes. AL The Principles Which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries; Illustrated by the History of the Ancient Logics and Metaphysics. In EPS (cited by paragraph: page). AP The Principles Which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries; Illustrated by the History of the Ancient Physics. In EPS (cited by paragraph: page). CL Considerations Concerning the First Formation of Languages. In LRBL (cited by paragraph: page). Corr. Correspondence of Adam Smith. Edited by E. Mossner and I. Ross (1987) (cited by letter: page). ED Early Draft of Part of the Wealth of Nations. In LJ (cited by paragraph: page). viii Citations and Abbreviations ix EPS Essays on Philosophical Subjects. Edited by W. Wightman, J. Bryce and I. Ross (1982). ES Of the External Senses. In EPS (cited by paragraph: page). HA The Principles Which Lead and Direct Philosophical Enquiries; Illustrated by the History of Astronomy. In EPS (cited by section. paragraph: page). IA Of the Nature of that Imitation which takes place in what are called the Imitative Arts. In EPS (cited by page). Letter Letter to the Edinburgh Review. In EPS (cited by page). Life Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith, LL.D. Dugald Stewart. In EPS (cited by page). LJA Lectures on Jurisprudence 1762/3. Edited by R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael and P. G. Stein (1978) (cited by page). LJB Lectures on Jurisprudence 1766. Edited by R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael and P. G. Stein (1978) (cited by page). LRBL Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Edited by J. Bryce (1985) (cited by section. paragraph: page). TMS The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Edited by A. L. Macfie and D. D. Raphael (1982) (cited by part. section. chapter. paragraph: page). WN An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edited by R. H. Campbell and A. S. Skinner (1981) (cited by book. part. chapter. paragraph: page). 1 Introduction Maria Pia Paganelli, Dennis C. Rasmussen and Craig Smith Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were two of the foremost figures of the European Enlightenment. They made seminal contri- butions to moral and political philosophy and shaped some of the key concepts of modern political economy. For some time there was a popular, if crude, notion that the two were in some sense opposites or even enemies. This crude reading of Smith as the advocate of liberalism, commercial society and progress as con- trasted to Rousseau’s advocacy of republicanism, the noble savage and a return to nature invited the unwary reader to see Smith as the champion of selfishness and progenitor of capitalism, in stark opposition to Rousseau as the champion of egalitarianism and the intellectual forefather of socialism. Fortunately the turn towards contextual and textual scholarship in the history of ideas has put paid to these stereotypes and has allowed the much more complex and rich connection between these thinkers to emerge. We are no longer dealing with caricatures where these two great thinkers are used as emblems for later intellectual developments, but we are still in the early stages of the exploration of their relationship. The present volume advances the analysis of their ideas by exploring a series of shared themes and preoccupations that can be traced in their writings. This introduction sets the scene for the collection of essays that follows by briefly describing some of the biographical and textual elements of the Smith–Rousseau connection, and then providing a brief sketch of some of the recent scholarly work on the relation- ship between the two thinkers. 3 4 Maria Pia Paganelli, Dennis C. Rasmussen and Craig Smith Rousseau and Smith: Some Context and Connections Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) and Adam Smith (1723–90) were near contemporaries, but they never corresponded and probably never met one another. It is just possible that they met in Paris in late December 1765 or early January 1766, but the evidence seems to point against such a meeting (see Rasmussen 2008: 53–4). They did, however, have many mutual acquaint- ances and interlocutors among Europe’s ‘republic of letters’.