[Ssf] Some thoughts by Adam Smith

Amparo amparo.gutierrez at tiscali.co.uk
Thu Jan 6 18:47:22 GMT 2005


>     Let us suppose that the great empire of China, with all its
> myriads of inhabitants, was suddenly swallowed up by an
> earthquake, and let us consider how a man of humanity in Europe,
> who had no sort of connexion with that part of the world, would
> be affected upon receiving intelligence of this dreadful
> calamity. He would, I imagine, first of all, express very
> strongly his sorrow for the misfortune of that unhappy people, he
> would make many melancholy reflections upon the precariousness of
> human life, and the vanity of all the labours of man, which could
> thus be annihilated in a moment. He would too, perhaps, if he was
> a man of speculation, enter into many reasonings concerning the
> effects which this disaster might produce upon the commerce of
> Europe, and the trade and business of the world in general. And
> when all this fine philosophy was over, when all these humane
> sentiments had been once fairly expressed, he would pursue his
> business or his pleasure, take his repose or his diversion, with
> the same ease and tranquillity, as if no such accident had
> happened. The most frivolous disaster which could befal himself
> would occasion a more real disturbance. If he was to lose his
> little finger to-morrow, he would not sleep to-night; but,
> provided he never saw them, he will snore with the most profound
> security over the ruin of a hundred millions of his brethren, and
> the destruction of that immense multitude seems plainly an object
> less interesting to him, than this paltry misfortune of his own.
> To prevent, therefore, this paltry misfortune to himself, would a
> man of humanity be willing to sacrifice the lives of a hundred
> millions of his brethren, provided he had never seen them? Human
> nature startles with horror at the thought, and the world, in its
> greatest depravity and corruption, never produced such a villain
> as could be capable of entertaining it. But what makes this
> difference? When our passive feelings are almost always so sordid
> and so selfish, how comes it that our active principles should
> often be so generous and so noble? When we are always so much
> more deeply affected by whatever concerns ourselves, than by
> whatever concerns other men; what is it which prompts the
> generous, upon all occasions, and the mean upon many, to
> sacrifice their own interests to the greater interests of others?
> It is not the soft power of humanity, it is not that feeble spark
> of benevolence which Nature has lighted up in the human heart,
> that is thus capable of counteracting the strongest impulses of
> self-love. It is a stronger power, a more forcible motive, which
> exerts itself upon such occasions. It is reason, principle,
> conscience, the inhabitant of the breast, the man within, the
> great judge and arbiter of our conduct. It is he who, whenever we
> are about to act so as to affect the happiness of others, calls
> to us, with a voice capable of astonishing the most presumptuous
> of our passions, that we are but one of the multitude, in no
> respect better than any other in it; and that when we prefer
> ourselves so shamefully and so blindly to others, we become the
> proper objects of resentment, abhorrence, and execration. It is
> from him only that we learn the real littleness of ourselves, and
> of whatever relates to ourselves, and the natural
> misrepresentations of self-love can be corrected only by the eye
> of this impartial spectator. It is he who shows us the propriety
> of generosity and the deformity of injustice; the propriety of
> resigning the greatest interests of our own, for the yet greater
> interests of others, and the deformity of doing the smallest
> injury to another, in order to obtain the greatest benefit to
> ourselves. It is not the love of our neighbour, it is not the
> love of mankind, which upon many occasions prompts us to the
> practice of those divine virtues. It is a stronger love, a more
> powerful affection, which generally takes place upon such
> occasions; the love of what is honourable and noble, of the
> grandeur, and dignity, and superiority of our own characters.

(...9
 From The Theory of Moral Sentiments






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