La Ambición de Adam Smith

Empathy’s purity, sympathy’s complexities; De Waal, Darwin and Adam Smith

Frans de Waal's view that empathy is at the basis of morality directly seems to build on Darwin, who considered sympathy as the crucial instinct. Yet when we look closer, their understanding of the central social instinct differs considerably. De Waal sees our deeply ingrained tendency to sympathize (or rather: empathize) with others as the good side of our morally dualistic nature. For Darwin,...

Adam Smith , Behavioral

Adam Smith , Behavioral Economist

Adam Smith and Greed

Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist

I n The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, Adam Smith famously argued that economic behavior was motivated by self-interest. But 17 years earlier in 1759, Smith had proposed a theory of human behavior that looks anything but selfinterested. In his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith argued that behavior was determined by the struggle between what Smith termed the “passions” and...