IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ejw/journl/v13y2016i2p351-358.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

My Understanding of Adam Smith's Impartial Spectator

Author

Listed:
  • Jack Russell Weinstein

Abstract

I provide an overview of Adam Smith’s impartial spectator with special attention to the limitations of the human imagination. I argue that the impartial spectator is not Archimedean, but is as epistemologically limited as its imaginer. I ask whether the imagination as Smith conceived it can overcome cultural boundaries, underscoring my claim elsewhere that Smith anticipated identity politics. I conclude by showing how the impartial spectator connects Smith’s ethics and economics and make a plea for its continuing value.

Suggested Citation

  • Jack Russell Weinstein, 2016. "My Understanding of Adam Smith's Impartial Spectator," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 13(2), pages 351–358-3, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:ejw:journl:v:13:y:2016:i:2:p:351-358
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econjwatch.org/File+download/914/WeinsteinMay2016.pdf?mimetype=pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://econjwatch.org/1021
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Kevin Quinn, 2019. "Was Smith A Moral Subjectivist?," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 8(1), pages 30-39, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Adam Smith; Theory of Moral Sentiments; impartial spectator; philosophy; imagination; John Rawls; Archimedean point; moral psychology; conscience; Scottish Enlightenment; objectivity; identity politics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith)
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ejw:journl:v:13:y:2016:i:2:p:351-358. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Jason Briggeman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/edgmuus.html .

    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.