Free Enterprise, Sympathy and Virtue

Abstract

The essay is about the foundational values of free enterprise as defended by Adam Smith, among others. My ultimate argument, however, is adapted from Aristotle, that good business like the good life depends on the appreciation and cultivation of the virtues (such as courage, temperance, and justice). Both philosophers argue, though separated by two thousand years and very different cultures, that our sense of "fellow feeling" is "natural," and we are born with it. Both philosophers also agree that we are not selfish beings but have a natural sense of justice. Smith adds that we are also endowed with sympathy (which Aristotle nowhere denies but simply takes more or less for granted). In this essay, I want to explore what this means, that fellow feeling, justice, and sympathy are in some sense natural and whether this view stands up to scrutiny in contemporary psychology and biology. I am especially interested in Smith's view of sympathy, but I finish up with Aristotle, who (despite his prejudices against commerce) has an even better way of dealing with the problem of self-interest.