Abstract
The purpose of our study is to analyze the role that the concept of gratitude plays in Adam Smith’s ethical and economic thinking. The figure of Adam Smith is usually associated with the theoretical bases of economic liberalism and, by extension, with the dire political, social and environmental consequences derived from the development of the market economy in the last three centuries. Despite this association, Adam Smith devotes several pages to reflecting on gratitude, a virtue that seems to be the antipodes of the cardinal values of the current global economic system. For this author, the expression of gratitude prevents interpersonal relationships from becoming strictly mechanical, so that the other is reduced to a mere means of our action. The main aim of our intervention is to show the role that the experience of gratitude plays in the thought of Adam Smith in order to explore the possibility of a more humane approach to the main theses of economic liberalism. We also outline some of the political implications that the experience of gratitude can have for our contemporaneity.
Presenters
Alex Mumbrú MoraProfesor Asociado, Departament de Filosofia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
ADAM SMITH, ECONOMIC LIBERALISM, GRATITUDE
