Smith at 300: How selfish soever man may be supposed

Smith at 300: Contribution by Karen Horn "The hypothetical part of the opening sentence ends after seven words, after the first comma, upon which Smith switches to certainty. Through the catchy paradox that unfolds between the two legs of the sentence, between “may be supposed” and “evidently”, he erects the two systematic pillars that his philosophical edifice will rest upon, here, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, and also, after some contextual adaptation, in the Wealth of Nations (see Horn 2019, p. 26). Smith puts it all on the table: He builds his system on the stunningly lean twin assumptions about human nature according to which people care about themselves (self-regard) and also about others (other-regard). Minimalistic as this is, everything starts from there. By the way how Smith introduces these parallel dispositions it is clear that the latter cannot be collapsed into the first, as he also explains at length when dealing with Hutcheson and Mandeville (e.g. TMS VII.ii.3.13 and TMS VII.iii.1.4). Other-regard and self-regard coexist. Each in itself, unchecked by the other, is but a moral corner solution. We must strive to prudently combine the two time and again. In Smith’s system, everything evolves in interaction, and everything is about balance."