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The Pleasure Of Exchange: Adam Smith’S Third Kind Of Self-Love

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  • Bee, Michele

Abstract

This article argues that the self-love that motivates exchange in The Wealth of Nations (WN) can be seen as the desire for deserved approval discussed by Adam Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). This often overlooked desire appears in TMS as the most representative kind of self-love. Exchange motivated by this desire emerges as the way to find confirmation through others’ appraisal of one’s own self-assessment, and thus to find an agreed-upon measure for respective deserved praise. The target in this economic relationship is that equivalence that signals mutual recognition of deserved esteem. Equivalence here is the aim and not the result of exchange, unlike a tug-of-war, where both parties try to give as little and gain as much as possible regardless of the recognition each deserves.

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  • Bee, Michele, 2021. "The Pleasure Of Exchange: Adam Smith’S Third Kind Of Self-Love," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 118-140, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jhisec:v:43:y:2021:i:1:p:118-140_6
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    Cited by:

    1. Ivan Sternick, 2022. "To be and to appear to be: Adam Smith’s response to Mandeville and Rousseau on the problem of the moral status of self-love," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 643, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    2. Michele Bee & Juan Pablo Gama, 2022. "A process of demand discovery from a smithian perspective," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 647, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    3. Michele Bee & Ivan Sternick, 2022. "No need for society: Adam Smith’s critique of pufendorf’s summa imbecillitas," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 644, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.

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