Adam Smith mentions benevolence and selflove in his
Lectures on Jurisprudence when he deals with the
source of the division of labour. It seems that it is
not benevolence as the propensity of human nature that
stimulates exchange (thereby the division of labour)
but selflove:
?If an animal intends to truck, as it were, or gain
any thing from man, it is by it?s fondness and
kindness. Man, in the same manner, works on the
selflove of his fellows, by setting before them a
sufficient temptation to get what he wants; the
language of this disposition is, give me what I want,
and you shall have what you want. It is not from
benevolence, as the dogs, but from selflove that man
expects any thing. The brewer and the baker serve us
not from benevolence but from selflove. No man but a
beggar depends on benevolence, and even they would die
in a week were their entire dependance upon it?.
Smith. A (1978) Lectures on Jurisprudence, Report
dated 1766, R. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael and P. G. Stein
(eds.), Oxford University Press: Indiana, p. 493.
On the other hand, as far as I see, Smith mentions the
same thing in his Lectures one year before under the
heading of Police but selflove and benevolence do not
appear. Instead, he uses the term self-interest. See,
Smith (1978), pp. 351-3.
Best wishes,
Ceyhun G?rkan
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