... and the concept of rationality) to offer economically grounded explanations for conflicts. We explain how, through his interactions with sociobiologists and game theorists, he reduced self-interest to mere selfishness and redefined rationality to encompass emotions and feelings. The final result...

... implications. My conclusion stresses the difficulty of escaping the customary presupposition that seemingly unselfish behavior concerns close-knit groups whereas selfishness applies to impersonal gatherings. Correspondence may be addressed to Philippe Fontaine, Département d'économie, École normale...

... and selfishness. Likewise, we make a connection between her abandonment of Smith’s vocabulary of movements and the absence of an identification process in her own analysis of sympathy. Correspondence may be addressed to Laurie Bréban, PHARE , University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne—106–112, boulevard de...

... of Adam Smith: Jacob Viner's reading of Smith's invisible hand as God and Paul Samuelson's reading of the same three words as an allocative mechanism that translates an individual's “selfish” actions into the public good or “the best good of all” within a state of perfect competition. These distinct...

... that number of inhabitants, which it is capable of maintaining. The rich only select from the heap what is most precious and agreeable. They consume little more than the poor, and in spite of their natural selfishness and rapacity, tho’ they mean only their own conveniency, tho’ the sole...

... between the ethically conscious human being behind Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) and the apparently selfish character behind the Wealth of Nations (WN). For modern readers this is not a real prob- lem. All human beings are naturally motivated to pursue their own affairs. This does...

... of human behavior. He had no doubt that his conception of selfish man had a great explanatory power. For example, he repeatedly argued that what motivates people to pursue different activities is profit: “Eels are like snakes; silkworms like caterpillars. Men are fright- ened at the sight...

... increasingly preoccupied with moral questions dur- ing the extended period of self-reflection and self-examination he experi- enced in Australia from 1855 to midyear 1856. Particularly of interest to him was his own selfish nature, a nature that he both abhorred (Black and Konekamp 1972, 1 :1 12...

..., 72). There would be “an undisguised hostility against each other,” and in this situation “the disin- terested principle would set up a feeble barrier, indeed, against a desolat- ing tide of selfishness” (72). This disjoined, even Hobbesian, vision, culmi- nating in “unblushing fraud...

... for what offices of goodness and humanity his sta- tion may allow; to store his mind with useful knowledge, and with the grand maxims which conduce to a virtuous life; to acquire virtuous habits, and a power of restraining all the lower appetites and selfish passions, which may oppose them...

... , M. V. 1989b . Jevons' “blunder” concerning value and distribution: an explanation . Typescript. Woolley , J. 1856 . The Selfish Theory of Morals. Sydney Morning Herald . 11 September. Woolley , J. 1862 . Lectures delivered in Australia . Cambridge and London: Macmillan...

... of the Theory of Moral Sentiments for Adam Smith’s Economic Thought Ralph A nspach MANYECONOMISTS, and certainly the general public, think of Adam Smith as a fervent *believerin the power of self-interest, if not selfish- ness, as the dominating...

..., [which] recogniz[es] and incorporat[es] all of Bentham’s which is permanently valuable” (221). Whereas Bentham and his followers assumed that self-interest is a predominant motive and therefore concentrated on “enlightening the selfish feelings” (113) and on employing external sanctions...

...] all of Bentham’s which is permanently valuable” (221). Whereas Bentham and his followers assumed that self-interest is a predominant motive and therefore concentrated on “enlightening the selfish feelings” (113) and on employing external sanctions such as legal penalties and public opinion...

..., [which] recogniz[es] and incorporat[es] all of Bentham’s which is permanently valuable” (221). Whereas Bentham and his followers assumed that self-interest is a predominant motive and therefore concentrated on “enlightening the selfish feelings” (113) and on employing external sanctions...

... to provide a philosophical rationale for the establishment of certain key social institutions. Positing scarcity and selfishness as biological and behavioral constants,6 Hume described how humans, eager to secure the benefits of coexistence in “society,” created certain conventions to constrain their self...

... character formed under this thoroughly selfish system. Truth, honesty, virtue will be mere names, as they are now, and as they ever have been. Under this system there can be no true civilization; for by it all are trained civilly to oppose and often to destroy one another...

... of Nations, Bk. 4, chap. 9). Rae contrasts “selfish vanity,” which stimulates the desire for luxuries, with the “social and benevolent affections and intellectual powers” that animate the demand for utilities, but warns that “there are few commod- ities, however, in which utility, as well...

... of selfishness necessarily” dominated “in all the ordinary affairs of life” (p. 257). As an example, Thompson argued that under individual competition, it was “in the interests of all medical men that diseases should exist and prevail, or their trade would be decreased ten, or one hundred, fold” (p. 259...

... dedication to industry and frugality, they hoped, would keep selfishness and competition in check and “community solidarity” (p. 2) intact. Consequently, most Americans pre- ferred reform of morals to reform of the social and economic structure. Only with the collapse of the nonimportation...