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The birthday of Adam Smith?s ?The Theory of Moral Sentiments?

By ADF Alliance Alert

Christian Science Monitor: "Smith's breakthrough was to see ethics as an issue of social psychology. It was not something inherent in actions themselves that made them good or bad. It was how they affected other people, and how other people reacted to them. Because we are social beings, Nature has equipped us with a powerful empathy (Smith calls is sympathy) with other people. When we see them suffering, we are distressed; when we see them overjoyed, we share some of their happiness. This natural empathy steers us towards action which benefits our fellows, and causes us to approve of it; likewise it steers us against damaging action, and prompts our disapproval of such action."

Full post as published by Constitutionally Correct on April 27, 2010 (boomark / email).