0000004837 00000 n The agreeableness of the "benevolent" sentiments leads to full sympathy on the part of the spectator with both the person concerned and the object of these emotions and are not felt as aversive to the spectator if they are in excess. ;d��e��ɡ��S>���4N����� ȆX��ć��CG�N.��/�5��A���I L��&=�,P;y��5{}Hb�?�heW�� ��.^�� However, in general, any expression of anger is improper in the presence of others. Of grief and joy, Smith notes that small joys and great grief are assured to be returned with sympathy from the impartial spectator, but not other degrees of these emotions. Of the Foundation of our Judgments concerning our own Sentiments and Conduct, and of the Sense of Duty. Smith also proposes several variables that can moderate the extent of sympathy, noting that the situation that is the cause of the passion is a large determinant of our response: An important point put forth by Smith is that the degree to which we sympathize, or "tremble and shudder at the thought of what he feels", is proportional to the degree of vividness in our observation or the description of the event. 0000047645 00000 n They cannot stand the mortification of their monarch. When the duke of Sully was called upon by Lewis the Thirteenth, to give his advice in some great emergency, he observed the favourites and courtiers whispering to one another, and smiling at his unfashionable appearance. That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is often most unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages. 0000003351 00000 n Great King, live for ever! 0000004992 00000 n "Smith’s system can help adolescents build a moral narrative for their developing social lives." This is due to the "healing consolation of mutual sympathy" that a friend is 'required' to provide in response to "grief and resentment", as if not doing so would be akin to a failure to help the physically wounded. Theorie der ethischen Gefühle (engl.The Theory of Moral Sentiments) ist ein erstmals 1759 in London in zwei Bänden veröffentlichtes philosophisches Werk von Adam Smith.Er erklärt darin umfassend, aus welchen Gründen es den Menschen möglich sei, füreinander das Gefühl des Mitgefühls zu empfinden. Physical beauty, according to Smith, is also determined by the principle of custom. Pain is fleeting and the harm only lasts as long as the violence is inflicted, whereas an insult lasts to harm for longer duration because our imagination keeps mulling it over. Of Merit and Demerit; or, of the Objects of Reward and Punishment. As a friend is likely to engage in more sympathy than a stranger, a friend actually slows the reduction in our sorrows because we do not temper our feelings out of sympathizing with the perspective of the friend to the degree that we reduce our sentiments in the presence of acquaintances, or a group of acquaintances. Of this kind is pity or compassion, the emotion we feel for the misery of others, when we either see it, or are made to conceive it in a very lively manner. 0000004662 00000 n However, as these secondary emotions are excessive in love, one should not express them but in moderate tones according to Smith, as: All these are objects which we cannot expect should interest our companions in the same degree in which they interest us. At the thought of this, his heart seems to swell and dilate itself within him, and he is fonder of his wealth, upon this account, than for all the other advantages it procures him. But the various oc-cupations in which the different accidents of my life necessarily involved me, have To express pain is also considered unbecoming. He also proposes a natural 'motor' response to seeing the actions of others: If we see a knife hacking off a person's leg we wince away, if we see someone dance we move in the same ways, we feel the injuries of others as if we had them ourselves. Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) tends toarouse sharply divergent reactions among the philosophers who pick itup. According to Smith, this explains why we reserve sympathy until we know the cause of the anger or resentment, since, if the emotion is not justified by the action of another person, then the immediate disagreeableness and threat to the other person (and by sympathy to ourselves) overwhelm any sympathy that the spectator may have for the offended. But, upon coming into the world, we soon find that wisdom and virtue are by no means the sole objects of respect; nor vice and folly, of contempt. Smith returns to anger and how we find "detestable...the insolence and brutality" of the person principally concerned but "admire...the indignation which they naturally call forth in that of the impartial spectator" (p. 32). Failing to do so makes bad company, and therefore those with specific interests and "love" of hobbies should keep their passions to those with kindred spirits ("A philosopher is company to a philosopher only" (p. 51)) or to themselves. Thus, love inspires sympathy for not for love itself but for the anticipation of emotions from gaining or losing it. The Kessinger "book" is a bad reprint of a couple of chapters of Smith's entire "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" and runs less than their stated 60 pages. 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