Friendship in Commercial Society Revisited: Adam Smith on Commercial Friendship

Abstract

Friendship is a rather unusual topic for Adam Smith scholars given the emphasis that the concept of sympathy has received in the field of Scottish Enlightenment scholarship. However it has been quite rightly pointed out that Smith considered sympathy to be central to commercial motivation (see Hanley, ms). The emblematic Smithian motto, the effort of every single human being to better its condition is driven by the human desire ‘to be taken notice of with sympathy, complacency and approbation’ (TMS I.3.2.1). Throughout Smith’s oeuvre, to turn moderate wealth getting into a widespread legitimate and ‘improving’ social activity is a priority. To this end, he pleads for the ‘trickle down’ effect of an increasingly productive economy together with the subsequent development of a social and cultural framework that will turn wealth getting into a morally acceptable and politically manageable activity. In the same vein, an analogous, ‘proper’ consumption mentality should be equally developed, immune to the dangers of aristocratic conspicuous consumption and the subsequent ‘corruption of the moral sentiments’ due to boundless admiration of the rich and famous. In this specific context the idea that Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) is a ‘manifesto of middle class mores’ (Barzilai, 2010) gains acceptance. In this Smithian landscape, is there any place left for a modern conception of friendship beyond a vestigial classical legacy? The core claim of this paper is that there is something particularly original in Smith’s treatment of friendship.