EconTalk Book Club—The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Just getting to this -- the discussion I've heard so far is fascinating, and I'd love to see other books covered in the future (Hayek and Friedman would be great) -- maybe do a book or two a year?

From EconTalk and a few Econ bloggers I have a vague sense of these influential thinkers and their defining works, and I have Bern planning to fill in the gaps in my knowledge -- I can think of no better way to do so than under the guidance of Russ and his contributors...

muirduck,

I guarantee you my answer to the girl was more valuable than all your welfare.

"The one who gives you your rice bowl, tells you what to do," is an ancient Chinese saying.

With the gift comes the collar and leash.

I gave her that version and then gave her the street version.

The street version introduces a large dollop of shame along with the knowledge. I guarantee that girl, should she ever have to accept charity or welfare, she will cringe in shame, because she won't forget. And, she'll be looking for a back to self sufficiency. And, that is a good thing.

The Queen had an iPod in 2005, for what it's worth.

muirduck,

Are you (yes) really so dense that you presumed that I did not have an answer for the girl?

vidyohs

I'm sure you had an answer but I'm also sure it wasn't likely helpful or well thought out. Mostly it was likely emotional and not pragmatic to the realities of the real world. Everyone gets welfare some where along the way or we as a species don't survive. The problem for our species is in finding a genetic balance of the self centered greed we see in some people with alturism needed for our success as a group.

muirduck,

Are you (yes) really so dense that you presumed that I did not have an answer for the girl? She received a very intense and personal indoctrination on what being a "thumbsucker" means for her personally and for the world in general.

While I value the blog and the good professors, I had that reply fixed in my own mind through my own study, observation, and intellectual thinking long before I found this blog.

Last of all, I find it really amusing that you would think to advise anyone on social philosophy or politics.

Few in this world can match your intellectual disabilities, and none I have seen yet can exceed those. Truly in the world of intellectual combat and competition you wander unarmed.

"Morality,

what do you say to a young girl who asks, "What's wrong with taking welfare or charity?"

The seriously asked question makes me want to cry."

Vidyohs

I think you'll be surprised if you truly listen and read along with this book.

Does anyone have an answer for me. I'd love to download these talks to CD so I could listen in the traffic on the way to town.

Posted by: vidyohs

Jesus H. Vidyohs.... buy an ipod already. What part of the stone age are you living in? Hell I'll buy you one. Anyway right click (assuming you have a PC) on the Econtalk link and download the mp3 file then burn it to a disk. But an ipod is much easier. Heck even the Queen has one now thanks to our hip new president. Ad she is like 90 years old.

B K,

Thanks, appreciate the help.

vidyohs,

Download the MP3 to your hard drive and then burn it onto a CD. Most late model cars with CD players can also play MP3s. If not, download iTunes. From within iTunes you can convert an MP3 to an audio disk. If all this sounds confusing ask a neighbor kid to help you. It's totally do-able.

Russ,

I have learnt much listening to your podcasts over the years about Smith and Hayek, but find the text fairly impenetrable.

Do you think that a typical listener can gain from the podcasts without 'reading along'? I bow down to your recommendation.

Can I join the other commentators in thanking you for this fantastic resource you are creating.

Don't you have grandchildren vidyohs?

One of my favorite passages of TTMS is Smith's very Rothbardian discussion of treason. It's from

Pt. 2, chap. 2:

"As the merit of an unsuccessful attempt to do good seems thus, in the eyes of ungrateful mankind, to be diminished by the miscarriage, so does likewise the demerit of an unsuccessful attempt to do evil. The design to commit a crime, how clearly soever it may be proved, is scarce ever punished with the same severity as the actual commission of it. The case of treason is perhaps the only exception. That crime immediately affecting the being of the government itself, the government is naturally more jealous of it than of any other. In the punishment of treason, the sovereign resents the injuries which are immediately done to himself: in the punishment of other crimes, he resents those which are done to other men. It is his own resentment which he indulges in the one case: it is that of his subjects which by sympathy he enters into in the other. In the first case, therefore, as he judges in his own cause, he is very apt to be more violent and sanguinary in his punishments than the impartial spectator can approve of."

Great idea, Russ... looking forward to it

Moral Sentiments.

Just finished my second business success skills classes at the local High School.

Morality,

what do you say to a young girl who asks, "What's wrong with taking welfare or charity?"

The seriously asked question makes me want to cry.

I'll be interested in this series Professor.

I am still new to a lot of the concepts of what a computer can do, is it possible to download the econtalk to CD without the delay of realtime? Does anyone have an answer for me. I'd love to download these talks to CD so I could listen in the traffic on the way to town.

I too wish to thank everyone involved.

I'll be struggling along. A long list of examples of sympathy, each presented as a logic puzzle. I suppose deciphering is half of the fun.

Looking forward to the discussions.

I'd like to sincerely recognize the charity of Profs. Roberts and Klein for doing the book club. You are both mensches of the highest order.

Having recently been banned at EconLib (and I assume, by extension EconTalk) for questioning the appropriateness of one of the blogger's sources, I won't be participating in the comments of the book club. But I'm reading along and keeping up.

TrUmPiT, by any chance do you happen to work for the Postal Service?

This is a great idea. Glad you choose this book to start with.

Thank you for your efforts and services to educate the public and me. You are a charitable (foolish?) educator. I will be benefiting greatly from all the free stuff you are giving away. I always feel guilty when I get stuff for free. I feel like I'm taking advantage of somebody. I guess I'm a capitalist at heart. Pay as you go just feels like the proper moral sentiment. I once picked up an orange that had fallen from a neighbors tree and rolled into the gutter. I was hungry and wanted to savior a sweet tree-ripened piece of fruit. But to whom did that orange rightfully belong? I asked myself. So, I did the right thing and threw the orange back into my neighbors yard to rot along with the rest of the fallen fruit. I went the rest of the day without eating and with a case of mild scurvy for even letting the theiving thought of taking another's property without just compensation cross my mind. Only later did I realize that I could have asked my neighbor for the fruit. But how audacious of me to do so though. It would be sort of like that orphan in Oliver, who has the effrontery to ask for more porridge. I didn't want to be chased around the block for a mere orange. So as not to be Mickey/Minnie the Moocher, please tell me where to make a $10 dollar donation after partaking of all the free intellectually goodies that you have provided me with. Somehow, I don't think it will be the Young Communist League USA.

Fully agree. Thanks so much to Russ and Dan for doing this, and especially to Russ for keeping up with regular EconTalk episodes at the same time.

Russ,

Just want to say a big thank you for this series of podcasts. My interests over time shifted from economics to philosophy, and this is a great bridge of both fields.

Hopefully it is popular enough to focus on other famous works.