Hanging with History

64. Adam Smith Pt.3; The Theory of Moral Sentiments; What kind of monkeys are we?

June 10, 2021 Harald Hansen Season 1 Episode 64
Hanging with History
64. Adam Smith Pt.3; The Theory of Moral Sentiments; What kind of monkeys are we?
Show Notes

Why do humans behave decently towards each other?  

Adam Smith doesn't do evolutionary biology, but his insights, on how we wish to love and be loved and what's more we wish to be lovely are timeless and deep.  The corresponding notions of how we wish to avoid giving offense and how we have a horror of blameworthiness...a horror we don't really face.

The Conversations with Camie is longer than usual and I get into some of the various Big Theories on the origins of the Industrial Revolution, and how Adam Smith is the most important person in the universe in some of them, if they are true.