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Being Me Being You: Adam Smith and Empathy PDF

231 Pages·2019·3.206 MB·English
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Being Me Being You Being Me Being You Adam Smith and Empathy samuel fleischacker The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2019 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637. Published 2019 Printed in the United States of America 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 5 isbn-1 3: 978- 0- 226- 66175- 9 (cloth) isbn-1 3: 978- 0- 226- 66189- 6 (paper) isbn-1 3: 978- 0- 226- 66192- 6 (e- book) doi: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226661926.001.0001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Fleischacker, Samuel, author. Title: Being me being you : Adam Smith and empathy / Samuel Fleischacker. Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2019018464 | isbn 9780226661759 (cloth : alk. paper) | isbn 9780226661896 (pbk. : alk. paper) | isbn 9780226661926 (e-book) Subjects: lcsh: Smith, Adam, 1723–1790. | Empathy. Classification: lcc b1545.z7 f54 2019 | ddc 152.4/1—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019018464 ♾ This paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper). In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barley- corn less, And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them. walt whitman, “Song of Myself” Contents Preface ix List of Abbreviations xiii 1 Varieties of Empathy 1 2 Smithian Empathy 23 3 Updating Smith 49 4 Empathy and Culture 77 5 Empathy and Affectional Ties 89 6 Utilitarianism and the Limits of Empathy 102 7 Empathy and the Limits of Utilitarianism (I) 116 8 Empathy and the Limits of Utilitarianism (II) 128 9 Empathy and Demonization 149 Acknowledgments 167 Notes 169 Bibliography 201 Index 209 Preface Talk of empathy seems to be everywhere these days. Psychologists, primatol- ogists, political scientists, promoters of Eastern religions—e veryone seems to have something to say on empathy. Why write another book on the subject? Three reasons: First, the vast literature on empathy has yet to distinguish clearly among the different meanings of that term. Second, there has yet to be any good response to the powerful critiques of empathy recently put out by writers like the philosopher Jesse Prinz and the psychologist Paul Bloom; those who praise empathy and those who criticize it also seem to be talking past each other. Third, these problems are linked, and the eighteenth- century thinker Adam Smith’s understanding of empathy can, I think, help us address both of them. I’ll try in this preface to summarize how I propose to do that. Human beings share feelings with one another and, out of those shared feelings, care for one another. Neither our shared feelings nor our concern for others need run deep, however, and sometimes they lead us in the wrong direction, morally speaking: they direct us to fellow members of our local groups, rather than to humanity as a whole, and thereby contribute to preju- dice and ethnocentrism. Why put any moral weight on this capacity for shared feelings— on empathy? Well, to begin with, we empathize in many different ways, some of which are more morally valuable than others. I devote the first chapter of this book to laying out the wide range of meanings that the word “empathy” can bear, and to suggesting that confusion among these things helps explain why some writers are so enthusiastic about empathy while others regard it as misleading and dangerous. I also argue that Smith’s version of empathy has advantages that other versions of that idea lack. I end by indicating in outline what these advantages are. The rest of the book will fill in that outline.

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