2017 Chapters (Layout Features)

Rousseau and Smith: On Sympathy as a First Principle

Force, Pierre

The author revisits an argument he made in a 1997 article and a 2003 book that Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an essential interlocutor for Adam Smith and that the discussion of first principles in the Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations appropriated key elements of Rousseau’s philosophy. He summarizes the claims he made at the time regarding how Smith’s discussion of first principles was indebted to Rousseau. He summarizes objections made to these claims in reviews of his 2003 book, and responds to these objections. Finally, he shows how this debate about first principles was related to the story of the development of commerce as Smith told it in the Wealth of Nations.