Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T13:18:29.891Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Can Empathy Be a Moral Resource? A Smithean Reply to Jesse Prinz

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2016

MILLICENT CHURCHER
MILLICENT CHURCHER*
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
*
*<millicent.churcher@sydney.edu.au>
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper critiques Jesse Prinz’s rejection of Adam Smith’s model of impartial spectatorship as a viable corrective to empathic bias. I argue that Prinz’s case is unconvincing, insofar as it rests on an underdeveloped account of Smith’s view of critical self-regulation. By presenting a more detailed and attentive reading of Smithean impartial spectatorship, and exploring Smith’s compelling account of structural supports for sympathetic engagement, this paper demonstrates how Smith’s work is able to constructively engage with contemporary concerns regarding empathy’s role in guiding moral behaviour.

Cet article présente une critique de la position de Jesse Prinz, qui refuse de reconnaître la fonction corrective des préjugés empathiques dans le modèle du «spectateur impartial» d’Adam Smith. Je soutiens que la thèse de Prinz n’est pas convaincante, car elle repose sur une interprétation insuffisante du pouvoir critique du sujet introduit par Smith. Cet article met au jour «l’engagement sympathique» de la philosophie de Smith. Celle-ci émane de la réponse créative du jugement moral que le «spectateur impartial» porte sur autrui. Cette lecture plus attentive de Smith permet de reconnaitre l’importance pratique de son travail et sa capacité à contribuer aux discussions contemporaines concernant ce rôle primaire que l’empathie peut jouer dans l’élaboration de nos conduites morales.

Keywords

empathyimaginationAdam Smithimpartial spectatorshipJesse Prinz
Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 429 - 447
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Balguy, John 1976 The Foundation of Moral Goodness; Or, A Further Inquiry into the Origin of our Idea of Virtue. By a Clergyman. New York, NY: Garland Press. (Original work published in 1728–9).Google Scholar
Bargh, John A., and Williams, Lawrence E. 2007 “The Nonconscious Regulation of Emotion.” In Gross, James (Ed.), Handbook of Emotion Regulation (pp. 429–445). New York, NY: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Batson, Daniel 2009 “These Things Called Empathy: Eight Related but Distinct Phenomena.” In Decety, Jean and Ickes, William (Eds.), The Social Neuroscience of Empathy (pp. 3–15). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Clarke, Samuel 1978 “A Discourse Concerning the Unchangeable Obligations of Natural Religion and the Truth and Certainty of the Christian revelation.” In Knapton, J. and Knapton, P. (Eds.), The Works of Samuel Clarke, (Vol. 2, pp. 579–733). New York, NY: Garland Press. (Original work published in 1706).Google Scholar
Cudworth, Ralph 1976 A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality. New York, NY: Garland Press. (Original work published in 1731).Google Scholar
Currie, Gregory 1998 Realism of Character and the Value of Fiction . In Levinson, J. (Ed.), Aesthetics and Ethics: Essays at the Intersection (pp. 161–181). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dovidio, John, and Gaertner, Samuel 1986 Prejudice, Discrimination, and Racism: Historical Trends and Contemporary Approaches. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Driver, Julia 2011 “The Secret Chain: A Limited Defense of Sympathy.” The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 49, 234–238.Google Scholar
Drwecki, Brian B., Moore, Colleen F., Ward, Sandra E., and Prkachin, Kenneth M. 2011 “Reducing Racial Disparities in Pain Treatment: The Role of Empathy and Perspective-taking.” Pain 152 (5): 1001–1006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiori, Marina 2009 “A New Look at Emotional Intelligence: A Dual-Process Framework.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 13: 21–44.Google Scholar
Firth, Roderick 1952 “Ethical Absolutism and the Ideal Observer.” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 12 (3): 317–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forman-Barzilai, Fonna 2013 Adam Smith and the Circles of Sympathy: Cosmopolitanism and Moral Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Griswold, Charles 1999 Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gutsell, Jennifer, and Inzlicht, Michael 2010 “Empathy Constrained: Prejudice Predicts Reduced Mental simulation of Actions during Observation of Outgroups.” Journal of Experimential Social Psychology 46: 841–845.Google Scholar
Gyurak, Anett, Gross, James J., and Etkin, Amit 2011 “Explicit and Implicit Emotion Regulation: A Dual-process Framework.” Cognition and Emotion 25 (3): 400–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hume, David 1978 A Treatise of Human Nature (2nd ed.) Selby-Bigge, Lewis A. & Nidditch, Peter H. (Eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. (Original work published in 1739).Google Scholar
Johnson, James D., Simmons, Caroline H., Jordan, Amanda, Taddei, Leslie MacLean, Jeffrey, , Thomas, Duane, Dovidio, John F., and Reed, William 2002 “Rodney King and O.J. Revisited: The Impact of Race and Defendant Empathy Induction on Judicial Decisions.” Journal of Applied Social Psychology 32 (6): 1208–1223.Google Scholar
Kaseweter, Kimberley A., Drwecki, Brian B., and Prkachin, Kenneth M. 2012 “Racial Differences in Pain Treatment and Empathy in a Canadian Sample.” Pain Research and Management 17 (6): 381–384.Google Scholar
Kauppinen, Antti 2014 “Empathy, Emotion Regulation, and Moral Judgment.” In Maibom, Heidi L. (Ed.), Empathy and Morality (pp. 97–121). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koole, Sander L. 2009 “The Psychology of Emotion Regulation.” Cognition and Emotion 23: 4–41.Google Scholar
Lipps, Theodor 1903 “‘Empathy,’ Inward Imitation, and Sense Feelings.” In Carritt, Edgar F. (Ed.), Philosophies of Beauty: From Socrates to Robert Bridges being the Sources of Aesthetic Theory (pp. 252–256). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Lipps, Theodor 1905 “A Further Consideration of ‘Empathy.’” In Carritt, Edgar F. (Ed.), Philosophies of Beauty: From Socrates to Robert Bridges being the Sources of Aesthetic Theory (pp. 256–258). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mauss, Iris B., Bunge, Silvia A., and Gross, James J. 2007 “Automatic Emotion Regulation.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass 1: 146–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha C. 1997 Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, Martha C. 1998 “Exactly and Responsibly: A Defense of Ethical Criticism.” Philosophy and Literature 22 (2): 343–365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prinz, Jesse 2011a “Against Empathy.” The Southern Journal of Philosophy 49: 214–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prinz, Jesse 2011b “Is Empathy Necessary for Morality?” In Coplan, Amy and Goldie, Peter (Eds.), Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives (pp. 211–229). Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Adam 1976 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Campbell, R.H., Skinner, A.S., and Todd, W.B. (Eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. (Original work published in 1776).Google Scholar
Smith, Adam 1982 The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Raphael, David D. and Macfie, Alec L. (Eds.). Indianapolis, IN: Liberty Press. (Original work published in 1759).Google Scholar
Sullivan, Shannon, and Tuana, Nancy (Eds.) 2007 Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance. New York, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Titchener, Edward B. 1909 Lectures on the Experimental Psychology of the Thought-Processes. New York: The Macmillan Company.Google Scholar
Valihora, Karen 2001 “The Judgement of Judgement: Adam Smith’s ‘Theory of Moral Sentiments.’” British Journal of Aesthetics 41 (2): 138–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vischer, Robert 1994 “On the Optical Sense of Form: A Contribution to Aesthetics.” In Mallgrave, Harry F. and Ikonomou, Eleftherios (Eds.), Empathy, Form, and Space: Problems in German Aesthetics, 1873–1893. Santa Monica: The Getty Center for History of Art and the Humanities. (Original work published in 1873).Google Scholar
Voltaire, 1756 L’Orphelin de la Chine: Tragédie. A La Haye: Chez Jean Neaulme.Google Scholar
Xu, Xiaojing, Zuo, Xiangyu, Wang, Xiaoying, and Han, Shihui 2009 “Do You Feel My Pain? Racial Group Membership Modulates Empathic Neural Responses.” The Journal of Neuroscience 29: 8525–8529.Google Scholar