Thinking out Sympathy in the Age of Enlightement : the Contribution of the Belles-Lettres to the Ethical Reflection of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
Type de matériel :
TexteLangue : français Détails de publication : 2022.
Sujet(s) : Ressources en ligne : Abrégé : The philosophers of the Scottish Enlightement played a key role in the greater appreciation of our faculty of sharing the feelings of others, which they attempted to capture with the notion of “sympathy”. Now reflecting on the mechanisms of the exchanges of sympathy led them to develop an interest in the effects prompted by the works of Belles-Lettres : that the reader or spectator may share a character’s feelings allowed them to analyse the disposition of human beings towards sympathy, particularly according to the case of Adam Smith in his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). The article examines how reference to the works of Belles Lettres feeds into Adam Smith’s philosophical thinking but also, conversely, how philosophical analysis indirectly transforms the perception of the works of Belles Lettres.
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The philosophers of the Scottish Enlightement played a key role in the greater appreciation of our faculty of sharing the feelings of others, which they attempted to capture with the notion of “sympathy”. Now reflecting on the mechanisms of the exchanges of sympathy led them to develop an interest in the effects prompted by the works of Belles-Lettres : that the reader or spectator may share a character’s feelings allowed them to analyse the disposition of human beings towards sympathy, particularly according to the case of Adam Smith in his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). The article examines how reference to the works of Belles Lettres feeds into Adam Smith’s philosophical thinking but also, conversely, how philosophical analysis indirectly transforms the perception of the works of Belles Lettres.
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