Justice as a Virtue – Justice as a Principle in Adam Smith's Thought

The paper deals with the character of justice in Adam Smith's thought. Justice is considered both as a virtue, different from all other virtues for its enforceability; and as a principle on which all the systems of law should be grounded. Smith could not achieve his project of writing a theory of jurisprudence, but some parts of his thought have been analyzed under different points of view: the political "paradigms" of civic humanism and natural law; the dilemma about property, whether it existed by nature of by human convention; the equality/inequality of distribution; the way in which the labouring poor could improve their lot without infringing the rich's rights. Classical influences and modern considerations are interwoven in Smith's writings.-----El artículo se plantea el carácter de la justicia en el pensamiento de Adam Smith. La justicia se considera tanto como una virtud, diferente de las demás virtudes por su obligatoriedad; y como un principio sobre el que deberían estar basados todos los sistemas de leyes. Smith no pudo culminar su proyecto de escribir una teoría de la jurisprudencia, pero algunas partes de su pensamiento se han analizado bajo diferentes puntos de vista: los paradigmas políticos del humanismo cívico y la ley natural; el dilema sobre la propiedad, si existe por naturaleza o por convención humana; la igualdad/desigualdad de la distribución; la forma en que los pobres trabajadores podrían mejorar su suerte sin infringir los derechos de los ricos. En los escritos de Smith se entretejen las influencias clásicas y las consideraciones modernas

Renaissance Cicero. The 'economic' virtues of >emph type="2">De Officiis>/emph> I, 22 in some sixteenth century commentaries

The article concentrates on some commentaries on Cicero's passage of De Officiis I: 22. Extolling the solidarity of human society, Cicero stresses its utilitarian aspects, illustrating the common bond of mutual advantage provided by collaboration and exchange of goods and services. The Italian commentators, especially Pietro Marso, give special emphasis to an economic interpretation of this passage, in the light of some Aristotelian concepts about money and exchange. According to whether utilities or benefits are concerned, a double interpretation of exchange emerges, connected with the concept of distributive justice which applies both to beneficence/charity and to the allocation of privileges.Exchange, utility, society, distributive justice, commerce, common good,

Justice as a Virtue – Justice as a Principle in Adam Smith's Thought

The paper deals with the character of justice in Adam Smith's thought. Justice is considered both as a virtue, different from all other virtues for its enforceability; and as a principle on which all the systems of law should be grounded. Smith could not achieve his project of writing a theory of jurisprudence, but some parts of his thought have been analyzed under different points of view: the political "paradigms" of civic humanism and natural law; the dilemma about property, whether it existed by nature of by human convention; the equality/inequality of distribution; the way in which the labouring poor could improve their lot without infringing the rich's rights. Classical influences and modern considerations are interwoven in Smith's writings.-----El artículo se plantea el carácter de la justicia en el pensamiento de Adam Smith. La justicia se considera tanto como una virtud, diferente de las demás virtudes por su obligatoriedad; y como un principio sobre el que deberían estar basados todos los sistemas de leyes. Smith no pudo culminar su proyecto de escribir una teoría de la jurisprudencia, pero algunas partes de su pensamiento se han analizado bajo diferentes puntos de vista: los paradigmas políticos del humanismo cívico y la ley natural; el dilema sobre la propiedad, si existe por naturaleza o por convención humana; la igualdad/desigualdad de la distribución; la forma en que los pobres trabajadores podrían mejorar su suerte sin infringir los derechos de los ricos. En los escritos de Smith se entretejen las influencias clásicas y las consideraciones modernas

Aristotle, Adam Smith and the virtue of propriety

Adam Smith's ethics have long been thought to be much closer to the Stoic school than to any other school of the ancient world. Recent scholarship however has focused on the fact that Smith also appears to be quite close to Aristotle. I shall attend to Smith's deployment of a version of the doctrine of the mean, shall show that it is quite close to Aristotle's, shall demonstrate that in its detailed application it is seriously at odds with Stoic teaching on the passions, and particularly with their teachings on anger, and shall conclude that on a central issue of ethics Smith is a good deal closer to Aristotelian than to Stoic thinking