Will the Real Adam Smith Stand Up!

'There is not a negro from the coast of Africa who does not, in this respect, possess a degree of magnanimity which the soul of his sordid master is too often scarce capable of conceiving. Fortune never exerted more cruelly her empire over mankind, than when she subjected those nations of heroes to the refuse of the jails of Europe, to wretches who possess the virtues neither of the countries which they come from, nor of those which they go to, and whose levity, brutality, and baseness, so justly expose them to the contempt of the vanquished.'

--Adam Smith, TMS.

Stirring stuff. Came across these lines in Stephen Darwall's fascinating article on smith and liberalism. If I ever get the time I'd try and develop a course on Smith. so, first things first: this summer: finish TMS and Griswold's excellent book, then move on to Raphael's and Vivienne Brown's. 

'But though he is, no doubt, principally accountable to God; in the order of time, he must necessarily conceive himself as accountable to his fellow-creatures, before he can form any idea of the Deity'.
---TMS

In the order of time. That's a nice way of putting it. Not Sufism or an "inner" freedom; not an impersonal view or utilitarianism either. A kind of attentiveness, a kind attentiveness. But not always...

The individual is not always in pursuit of the individual.
--Iris M.

Very unromantic, I know, but cut me some slack.

Why is 'regards' a way of saying goodbye?

~~~

The counter revolution: just in case you're reading, Nikki, cinnamon rolls are the way of the future :-) You heard it here first, on the black sun. Donts be going saying you are the first when you aints.