Riccardo Bonfiglioli

This book investigates the problematisation in Adam Smith's moral philosophy of a classical question: what makes us human beings from a moral standpoint? To do this, Riccardo Bonfiglioli explores the relationship between the concepts of ‘human nature’, ‘mind’ and ‘the self’ in order to reconstruct Smith’s theory of subjectivity. After providing a systematic reconstruction of Adam Smith’s conceptions of ‘human nature’, ‘mind’ and ‘the self’ – exploring some aspects of Smith’s philosophy (nature, philosophy of history, sympathy and imagination) and their empirical expressions (education, conduct and character) – Bonfiglioli argues that, in Adam Smith’s work, the meaning of ‘moral human beings’ would depend on the human being’s effort to live in harmony with oneself and the others. According to Bonfiglioli, in Smith’s moral theory, this ‘harmony with oneself and the others’ would be achieved in relation to a certain kind of awareness that can be possible when human beings try to judge the conduct and try to act according to the impartial spectator. Specifically, this impartial spectator is reinterpreted by the author in the light of the concept of immediacy.

At first glance a work focused on Posthumous works of Montesquieu might seem to be an old fashioned pursuit. Philosophy has come widely under attack from various viewpoints, throughout the world. Moreover, this dominant perspective seems to become always more natural for one part of the population in some countries. For instance, we think about the statements of the president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro and his policy of cuts in the funding for universities; we have in mind the articles of the financial journalist Stefano Feltri whereby Philosophy would be useless2 or certain declarations of the Italian Minister of Interior Matteo Salvini3. In 2015, the Minister Hakuban Shimomura encouraged an anti-humanistic policy in Japan4. Fortunately, there are also exceptions like the president of Ireland Michael D. Higgins who recently drew attention to the importance of Philosophy