The Passions, Rationality, and Reason
The Passions, Rationality, and Reason
This chapter describes the main components of Adam Smith’s theory of the passions. It offers a detailed taxonomy of the passions. In particular, the chapter discusses four kinds of passions: the natural passions, the proto-passions, the intellectual sentiments, and the derived passions. The chapter also explains the way in which Smith thinks about rationality and the role of reason as a so-called active principle. The chapter introduces a concept, environmental rationality, to articulate what Smith means by sound judgment in a particular context. Finally, by drawing on Smith’s account of the proto-passions and his treatment of reason as an active principle, the chapter shows it is a mistake to understand Smith as a moral empiricist, as is commonly done.
Keywords: Adam Smith, natural passions, proto-passions, intellectual sentiments, derived passions, moral empiricism, environmental rationality
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