IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rsocec/v67y2009i1p95-113.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adam Smith on Instincts, Affection, and Informal Learning: Proximate Mechanisms in Multilevel Selection

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan Wight

Abstract

Why do people give away knowledge in tutoring other people's children or when mentoring junior employees? Neoclassical economists explain informal learning as rational behavior that arises out of enlightened self-interest. They can also justify it as acts that satisfy the agent's preferences for the utility of others. By contrast, this paper shows that Smith's moral sentiments model anticipates a biological approach that explains additional and deeper motives for such exchanges. Instincts and emotions serve consequentialist ends because the ultimate causes of behavior are grounded in adaptations useful for survival and procreation. But man is largely innocent of this knowledge. The proximate causes of behavior—that is, the adaptive mechanisms actually at work in human society—are psychologically obscure—not left to the conscious mind. Social and moral capital develop through instincts and affection, and mentoring and collaboration are examples of social exchanges that arise from them.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan Wight, 2009. "Adam Smith on Instincts, Affection, and Informal Learning: Proximate Mechanisms in Multilevel Selection," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 67(1), pages 95-113.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:67:y:2009:i:1:p:95-113
    DOI: 10.1080/00346760802483679
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00346760802483679
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00346760802483679?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. McCloskey, Deirdre Nansen, 2006. "The Bourgeois Virtues," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226556635, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Schliesser, Eric, 2011. "Reading Adam Smith after Darwin: On the evolution of propensities, institutions, and sentiments," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 14-22, January.
    2. Brosnan, Sarah F., 2011. "An evolutionary perspective on morality," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 23-30, January.
    3. Jonathan B. Wight, 2011. "Ethics and Critical Thinking," Chapters, in: Gail M. Hoyt & KimMarie McGoldrick (ed.), International Handbook on Teaching and Learning Economics, chapter 18, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Wilfred Dolfsma & Deborah Figart & Robert McMaster & Martha Starr, 2012. "Promoting Research on Intersections of Economics, Ethics, and Social Values: Editorial," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 70(2), pages 155-163, June.
    5. Daphne W. Yiu & William P. Wan & Kelly Xing Chen & Xiaocong Tian, 2022. "Public sentiment is everything: Host-country public sentiment toward home country and acquisition ownership during institutional transition," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 1202-1227, August.
    6. Eric Schliesser, 2010. "Reading Adam Smith after Darwin: On the Evolution of Propensities, Institutions, and Sentiments," Post-Print hal-00921187, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Niclas Berggren & Therese Nilsson, 2013. "Does Economic Freedom Foster Tolerance?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(2), pages 177-207, May.
    2. Harry Hummels & Patrick Nullens, 2022. "‘Other-wise’ Organizing. A Levinasian Approach to Agape in Work and Business Organisations," Humanistic Management Journal, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 211-232, October.
    3. Randall G. Holcombe, 2017. "Bourgeois Virtues Foster Capitalism; Does Capitalism Foster Bourgeois Virtues?," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 32(Winter 20), pages 95-107.
    4. Yalcintas, Altug, 2012. "İktisat doga bilimlerinin Mekke’si mi oluyor?: Toplumsal ve doga bilimleri iliskisi uzerine bir atıf analizi [Is economics becoming the Mecca of Biology?: A citation analysis of the relationship be," MPRA Paper 43493, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Verdier, Thierry & Bisin, Alberto, 2017. "On the Joint Evolution of Culture and Institutions," CEPR Discussion Papers 12000, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Brent Butgereit & Art Carden, 2011. "Capitalism, Socialism And Calculation," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 41-45, October.
    7. Mark Pennington, 2015. "Realistic Idealism and The Project of Political Economy," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(3), pages 366-379, October.
    8. Pies, Ingo, 2023. "Ethik des Kapitalismus," Discussion Papers 2023-06, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    9. Kelly, Morgan & Ó Gráda, Cormac, 2022. "Connecting the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions: The Role of Practical Mathematics," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(3), pages 841-873, September.
    10. William Kingston, 2014. "Schumpeter and the end of Western Capitalism," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 449-477, July.
    11. van Bavel, Bas, 2016. "The Invisible Hand?: How Market Economies have Emerged and Declined Since AD 500," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199608133, Decembrie.
    12. Aki Tomizawa & Li Zhao & Geneviève Bassellier & David Ahlstrom, 2020. "Economic growth, innovation, institutions, and the Great Enrichment," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 7-31, March.
    13. Michelle Albert Vachris & Justin P. Isaacs, 2017. "The Role of Cultural Values in the Formation and Survival of Pro-Growth Institutions," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 32(Spring 20), pages 89-113.
    14. Aimee E. Barbeau, 2017. "Ethics in a Commercial Age: McCloskey, Constant and Tocqueville on the Bourgeois Virtues," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 32(Winter 20), pages 59-70.
    15. Gregory Wolcott, 2015. "The New (Old) Case for the Ethics of Business," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 127-146, November.
    16. Gordon Redding & Michael Witt, 2009. "China’s business system and its future trajectory," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 381-399, September.
    17. Ross B. Emmett, 2020. "James M. Buchanan and Frank H. Knight on democracy as “government by discussion”," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 303-314, June.
    18. Joshua C. Hall, 2017. "A "Model" Model: McCloskey and the Craft of Economics," Working Papers 17-09, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    19. Randall G. Holcombe, 2020. "Progressive Democracy: the ideology of the modern predatory state," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 287-301, March.
    20. Andrew T. Young, 2017. "How the City Air Made Us Free: The Self-Governing Medieval City and the Bourgeois Revaluation," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 32(Winter 20), pages 31-47.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rsocec:v:67:y:2009:i:1:p:95-113. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RRSE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.