IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/hal-01435828.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

From one form of sympathy to another: Sophie de Grouchy’s translation of and commentary on Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments

Author

Listed:
  • Laurie Bréban

    (PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

  • Jean Dellemotte

    (PHARE - Philosophie, Histoire et Analyse des Représentations Économiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

Abstract

This paper focuses on Sophie de Grouchy's French translation of the Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759-1790), published in 1798 and praised, from the very moment of its publication. It aims at emphasizing Grouchy's reading of Smith's moral philosophy on some particular points as it might have influence her translation of the TMS. Indeed, one important aspect of Grouchy's Lettres, which concerns their reevaluation of Smithian sympathy, has been usually ignored by commentators. Curiously, whereas most contributions deals with the Marchioness' translation, there is scarce any comment on her reading of Smith's analysis (on the notable exception of Forget 2001). Yet, this could help to explain the distances that she sometimes took with Smith original vocabulary in her translation. In order to fulfill our aim, we first discuss the main features of this translation in the light of what has been pointed out by scholars. Most commentators agree that, despite its particular respect for the original text, Grouchy's translation is not completely literal (Biziou, Gautier and Pradeau 1999). However, we only partially share some existing interpretations of these modifications such as the one of Bernier (2010) or Britton (2009). Our interpretation relies on the critics that Grouchy addresses to Smith's moral philosophy in her Lettres. This leads us, in a second time, to emphasizes major philosophical differences between both authors; differences that Grouchy unfortunately underestimate. The reason that we put to the fore is the following: Grouchy analyzes Smith's thinking in the light of a philosophical framework inconsistent with his moral philosophy as it precisely corresponds to the kind of system that he criticizes. To conclude, we open the path to alternative interpretations of some Grouchy's choices of translation.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurie Bréban & Jean Dellemotte, 2016. "From one form of sympathy to another: Sophie de Grouchy’s translation of and commentary on Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments," Working Papers hal-01435828, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01435828
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-01435828
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-01435828/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fontaine, Philippe, 1997. "Identification and Economic Behavior Sympathy and Empathy in Historical Perspective," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 261-280, October.
    2. Montes, Leonidas, 2003. "Das Adam Smith Problem: Its Origins, the Stages of the Current Debate, and One Implication for Our Understanding of Sympathy," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(1), pages 63-90, March.
    3. Forget, Evelyn L., 2001. "Cultivating Sympathy: Sophie Condorcet's Letters on Sympathy," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 319-337, September.
    4. Sugden, Robert, 2002. "Beyond sympathy and empathy: Adam Smith's concept of fellow-feeling," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 63-87, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Laurie Bréban, 2017. "An Investigation into the Smithian System of Sympathy: from Cognition to Emotion," Working Papers hal-01467340, HAL.
    2. Laurie Bréban, 2018. "An Investigation into the Smithian System of Sympathy: from Cognition to Emotion," Post-Print hal-03904227, HAL.
    3. Laurie Bréban & Muriel Gilardone, 2019. "A missing touch of Adam Smith in Amartya Sen’s account of Public Reasoning: the Man Within for the Man Without," Economics Working Paper from Condorcet Center for political Economy at CREM-CNRS 2019-01-ccr, Condorcet Center for political Economy.
    4. Jérôme Ballet & Emmanuel Petit & Delphine Pouchain, 2018. "What mainstream economics should learn from the ethics of care," Post-Print hal-02145302, HAL.
    5. Khalil, Elias, 2007. "The Mirror-Neuron Paradox: How Far is Sympathy from Compassion, Indulgence, and Adulation?," MPRA Paper 3509, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Sylvie Thoron, 2016. "Morality Beyond Social Preferences: Smithian Sympathy, Social Neuroscience and the Nature of Social Consciousness [La moralité au delà des préférences sociales. La sympathie Smithienne, les neurosc," Post-Print hal-01645043, HAL.
    7. Donatella Furia & Alessandro Crociata & Massimiliano Agovino, 2018. "Voluntary work and cultural capital: an exploratory analysis for Italian regional data," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(3), pages 789-808, December.
    8. Michel Zouboulakis, 2010. "Trustworthiness as a Moral Determinant of Economic Activity: Lessons from the Classics," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(3), pages 209-221, January.
    9. Drakopoulos, Stavros, 2011. "Hierarchical Needs, Income Comparisons and Happiness Levels," MPRA Paper 48343, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Shaun P. Hargreaves Heap, 2013. "Rationality," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Stefano Zamagni (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Reciprocity and Social Enterprise, chapter 28, pages 277-284, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Fontaine, Philippe, 2023. "Smith At 300: Smith On Empathy And Sympathy," SocArXiv s3be2, Center for Open Science.
    12. Avner Offer, 2012. "Self-interest, Sympathy and the Invisible Hand : From Adam Smith to Market Liberalism," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 1(2), pages 1-1, December.
    13. Schubert, Christian, 2015. "Opportunity And Preference Learning," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(2), pages 275-295, July.
    14. Benoît Walraevens, 2022. "Adam Smith’s Economics and the Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres: The Language of Commerce," Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought, in: Adam Smith’s System, chapter 6, pages 141-166, Palgrave Macmillan.
    15. Stavros Drakopoulos, 2008. "The paradox of happiness: towards an alternative explanation," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 303-315, June.
    16. Amos Witztum, 2005. "Social Circumstances and Rationality:," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 1025-1047, October.
    17. Carlos Rodríguez Braun, 2021. "Adam Smith’s liberalism," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 465-478, December.
    18. Sandra Peart & David Levy, 2005. "A discipline without sympathy: the happiness of the majority and its demise," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 38(3), pages 937-954, August.
    19. Luca Zarri, 2007. "Happiness, Morality and Game Theory," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Pier Luigi Porta (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Happiness, chapter 16, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Gold, Natalie, 2020. "How should we reconcile self-regarding and pro-social motivations? A renaissance of “Das Adam Smith Problem”," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 109218, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Adam Smith; Sophie de Grouchy; Sympathy; Enlightenment;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-01435828. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.