Theory of Moral Sentiments (book)

🔗Connect

🔼Topic:: Ethics (MOC) 🔼Topic:: Empathy

✒️ Note-Making

💡Clarify

🔈 Summary of main ideas

We all wish to receive the sympathy of others, and naturally inclined to be sympathetic towards others. This causes a movement that starts from personal motives, and grows into a community wide moral environment where it is in your interest to share the feelings of others, from many we become one. Additionally, there are several factors which affect the level of sympathy we get:

1. emotion transferability (positive/negative) - Joyful emotions have a higher chance of being imitated by others. Hurtful emotions such as anger have the lowest chance, and also they might backfire. Negative emotions, such as depression, have a lower chance, but if they do transfer to others, their intensity is higher.
2. reason and purpose - Sympathy requires identifying, understanding and agreeing with both the reason (why) and purpose (what for) for a person's emotions. Unjust reasons or bad motives while negate sympathy.
3. context (level of familiarity with situation) - sympathy will have higher transferability when the spectator is more familiar with the context of the situation. Whether because they share natural attributes, such as same gender or age, shared experience, or certain knowledge fields.
4. resonance matching - Sympathy is highest when the actor listens to their spectators, is aware of the "frequency" of sympathy that they can deliver, the situations that are most familiar to them, the emotional level they deem worthy in this case, and adjust his behavior accordingly. This requires both listening and self control.
5. existing connection - In general, it is likely that we will receive more sympathy from people in our inner circle, such as friends and family.

🗒️Relate

⛓ Life lessons, action items

1. search for impartiality - True moral character develops when surrounded by impartial viewers, because they will give honest response, and not support us even when we don't deserve to.
2. Self control for sympathy - By developing self control, we could increase the level of sympathy we get, since we are deemed more worthy of it.
3. Sympathy is a two way process - in order for others to connect to you, they are not the only ones who should be open to connection, but you as well.
4. Sympathy is created through shared experience - is it the situation that triggers sympathy, not who you are.

🔍Critique

✅ by following this method, what will happen?

1. Invisible hand - when each one tries to act in a way that maximizes that sympathy he receives, we can have a moral community.
2. Justice to the good - True adoration, virtue, and greatness comes from those who actually follow through virtuous actions, and not just the mere vanity of it.
3. Social creatures - we have a natural tendency to connect to others
4. Born good - we all drawn to virtue by our nature

❌ the logical jumps, holes or simply cases where it is wrong...

1. Minds are not black boxes - Is it really not possible to get into the mind of others? to thing about their benefit based on their preferences and not others?
2. Self control != sympathy - I don't necessarily thinks that self control and sympathy are truly a necessary condition. I can imagine a truly sympathetic person that feels for everyone, by not being able to regulate his emotions. Similarly, I can imagine a stoic person with so much self control that he has became completely apathic to the world.
3. claims without proof - The invisible hand argument is laid out without any real backing, more like as an attempt to please the rich who read it. Perhaps in days where production is most likely food that perishes over time and most be sold, but today it is hardly the case that trickle down works
4. why do we admire the rich - There is a small contradiction in the matter of utility in beauty, which is the source of admiration we have for the rich, but it is not a causal source of action (as he said before, that we wish to be a part of something perfect)
5. what is true sympathy - he contradicts himself towards the end about the mechanism of sympathy, saying that suddenly it is looking through the eyes of the sufferer, and not your own
6. sensations don't always track reason - our inner minds and feelings often causes conflict, as sensation don't always lead to virtue and away from vice.
7. Hierarchy and utility don't coincide - there is hardly an harmonious system between the rich and the poor, and the rich aren't acting in an efficient way that trickles down. Essentially, the invisible hand is a lie.

🧱 Implementations and limitations of it are...

1. good is a social norm - one who follows this method is highly dependent on the "will of the people", or the cultural perception of those around us. Does it mean that I can't be a moral person, or that morality is limited to only what others around me conceive as moral?

🗨️Review

💭 my opinions on the book, the writers style...

1. it is hard to judge this book, as it sets the stage for many important views and thinkers later on. Some sections are very interesting and profonde, others seem more like a monolog without a clear foundation behind it
2. While the order of the parts is perhaps arbitrary, the chapters are divided into separate distinct ideas, with a very informative title which makes it easy to follow.

🖼️Outline

📒 Notes

Part 1 - the Propriety of Action

Section 1 - the Sense of Propriety

Chapter 1 - of Sympathy

All people, selfish as they can be, have the innate power or inclination to sympathize with others, as if it is a natural response, without it being in their interest to do so. Imitation

Since we cannot truly experience what the other person is experiencing, because all experience is subjective. Subjective Reality, we imagine ourselves in his place, going though everything that he is going through, and feeling what we believe that should be the right emotion in that case. It is not because of facial expressions that we experience sympathy, since we don't share the anger of an angry man, but rather we get angry at him. Mirroring

Until we know why a person is experiencing those things, every sympathy will remain incomplete, and would be (at least partially) replaced by curiosity or indifference.

It is the situation, not the person, who triggers the sympathetic emotions. It is not the poor man that makes us sympathetic, but rather the situation (what would I feel if I was also poor like that). That's why we sympathize with inanimate or inhuman objects, because it's the situation that triggers the emotion.

It is only because of this capability to sympathize with a situation that we fear death, since it will never be someone's experience, but rather a situation that we would all face, and can imagine today how we would feel in that case. This fear, is the nightmare of the individual, but the protector of society.

Quotes

• How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it. (Location 340)
• As we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are affected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation. (Location 346
• In every passion of which the mind of man is susceptible, the emotions of the by-stander always correspond to what, by bringing the case home to himself, he imagines should be the sentiments of the sufferer. (Location 373
• Nature, it seems, teaches us to be more averse to enter into this passion, and, till informed of its cause, to be disposed rather to take part against it. (Location 392
• Sympathy, therefore, does not arise so much from the view of the passion, as from that of the situation which excites it. (Location 398)

Chapter 2 - on the Pleasure of Mutual Sympathy.

Sympathy has become our main source of pleasure and a way to alleviate suffering. For example, we could be "fed up" with reading a song to ourselves, but enjoy reading it to others, experiencing the novelty and excitement through their eyes. Similarly, suffering can only be alleviated by others since the combination between distance and sympathy is what allows them so "swallows" the sadness away, when we are too consumed by it. Happiness is shared. Therefore we have come to expect the sympathy of others. A friend that doesn't share my happiness or sadness but rather acts indifferent is not a good friend. friendship is sharing

As the friend, we can feel the disconnect when we can't share the sadness of others, replacing sympathy with distancing, thinking of his sadness as a sign of weakness. And similarly, when we can't share his happiness, we think of it as foolishness.

where sympathy lacks, indifference and distance will follow

Quotes

• Sympathy, however, enlivens joy and alleviates grief. It enlivens joy by presenting another source of satisfaction; and it alleviates grief by insinuating into the heart almost the only agreeable sensation which it is at that time capable of receiving. (Location 453)
• The agreeable passions of love and joy can satisfy and support the heart without any auxiliary pleasure. The bitter and painful emotions of grief and resentment more strongly require the healing consolation of sympathy. (Location 471)

Chapter 3 - how We Judge Others by Our Standards

sympathy is an act of connection. To sympathize with someone means that we agree with the reasons that has led him to feel joy or sadness. For example, to enjoy hearing his song means that we ourselves also appreciate his song. Active Listening The is a unity between feeling connected and rational conclusion.

The source of sympathy is therefore a connection based on two aspects:

1. Past reasons - the source of his feelings
2. future goal - the target of his feelings, or actions that follow that

For example, a person who experiences pain due to the loss of his father, will get sympathy if he will appear sad and wishes to avoid working for a few days. The past reasons and future goal are logical and reasonable. However, if for the same reason he wanted to hit a child, then he would not get sympathy for lack of accordance with his future goal. Similarly if his past reasons were losing a game rather than a father, we would likely not sympathize with him due to lack of accordance with his past reasons. Sympathy, and morality in general, is the result of both a rational and emotional connection Morality is both rational and emotional

Again, it is worth noting that we judge others by our standards, since any other point of view is far from our reach. We can't read minds

Quotes

• To approve of another man’s opinions is to adopt those opinions, and to adopt them is to approve of them. (Location 501)
• The sentiment or affection of the heart from which any action proceeds, and upon which its whole virtue or vice must ultimately depend, may be considered under two different aspects, or in two different relations; first, in relation to the cause which excites it, or the motive which gives occasion to it; and secondly, in relation to the end which it proposes, or the effect which it tends to produce. (Location 524)
• Every faculty in one man is the measure by which he judges of the like faculty in another. I judge of your sight by my sight, of your ear by my ear, of your reason by my reason, of your resentment by my resentment, of your love by my love. I neither have, nor can have, any other way of judging about them. (Location 540)

Chapter 4 - Sympathy is Bidirectional

Sympathy doesn't only passes emotion from the subject to the audience, but also the other way around. By seeing how others react to our situation, we gain clarity about our own emotions, whether we overreacted, whether our feelings are justified, and we can correct ourselves immediately. Self-awareness One should note that the level of sympathy might vary depending on the listener. A friend will exhibit higher sympathy than a stranger.

Quotes

• The mind, therefore, is rarely so disturbed, but that the company of a friend will restore it to some degree of tranquillity and sedateness. The breast is, in some measure, calmed and composed the moment we come into his presence. We are immediately put in mind of the light in which he will view our situation, and we begin to view it ourselves in the same light; for the effect of sympathy is instantaneous. (Location 616)
• Society and conversation, therefore, are the most powerful remedies for restoring the mind to its tranquillity, (Location 624)

Chapter 5 - of Sympathy and Virtues

It is because we are reactive to the sympathy of others to us, that we try to match the emotional level that they can resonate back to us Resonance, since we want them to share our feelings, that is exactly the reason why we can achieve a moral society out of selfish individuals. Invisible hand Emergence.

Quotes

• to feel much for others and little for ourselves, that to restrain our selfish, and to indulge our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature; and can alone produce among mankind that harmony of sentiments and passions in which consists their whole grace and propriety. (Location 653)

Section 2 - Degrees of Sympathy

Chapter 1 - Passions that Originate from the Body

It is much easier for us to sympathize with emotions that stem from mental or social issues rather than physical ones. That is because:

1. Common Language - Physical emotions requires a common language that might be hard to generate. A man cannot understand a woman's labor. A well-fed doesn't remember hunger.
2. Importance - physical emotions are regarded as more short term and less important. Once we eat, we no longer remember our own hunger, or give it any more credit. So why should others?

With physical pain, it's best to exercise Self-control and not express it.

Quotes

• Such is our aversion for all the appetites which take their origin from the body: all strong expressions of them are loathsome and disagreeable. (Location 722)
• we sympathize with him more strongly upon this account, because our imaginations can more readily mould themselves upon his imagination, than our bodies can mould themselves upon his body. (Location 745)

Chapter 2 - "imaginary" Sensations

Not all sensations are created equal in terms of their capability to transfer from one person to another, i.e to spark sympathy. For example, love. Love, because it is built on such a strong connection between people or to a given topic, requires more context than we could hope to transfer from one person to another. Therefore, there are certain topics where similarity between people is key. For example, a philosopher is a good companion to philosophy, because of the high context needed to share the enthusiasm about related topics and works of art.

Chapter 3 - "unsocial" Sensations

Anger, is another form of a sensation that has "low transferability". Since this type of emotion is disagreeable both for the viewer and the transmitter, is it usually an emotion with low conductivity, and it is preferred that we overcome it, rather than be immerged in it.

Chapter 4 - "social" Sensations

Love, kindness, compassion - it's always a good emotion to see and to share

Chapter 5 - Selfish Sensations

these are joy and sadness. We as humans prefer to sympathize more with joy than sadness, since it has a lower cost on our wellbeing.

Quotes

Joy is a pleasant emotion, and we gladly abandon ourselves to it upon the slightest occasion. We readily, therefore, sympathize with it in others, whenever we are not prejudiced by envy. But grief is painful, and the mind, even when it is our own misfortune, naturally resists and recoils from it. (Location 1011)

Section 3 - why Certain Emotions Are Easier to Sympathize than Others

Chapter 1 - Sympathy with Sorrow is More Rare but More Powerful

similarly to joy and sadness, sorrow is a hard emotion to imitate rather than joy, but when we feel it it is much more powerful. Additionally, we counterintuitively tend to sympathize more with the sufferer who manages to contain his emotions, showing self control and grandeur over obstacles.

Quotes

• sympathy with sorrow is often a more pungent sensation than our sympathy with joy, it always falls much more short of the violence of what is naturally felt by the person principally concerned. (Location 1075)

Chapter 2 - on Ambition and Hierarchy

there is an a-symmetry when looking at the actions of those who are on top and those at the bottom. Those at the top focus on presenting the differences between them and everyone else, symbols of their status and power, while those at the bottom focus on presenting their worth, proofs of knowledge, bravery and action, to convince others that they deserve their attention. Signaling I.e those on top demand, while those on the bottom ask. by testing himself and his skills, the powerful can only lose (if he fails) fixed mindset, while the person with ambition can only gain (if he succeeds) growth mindset

Quotes

• It is because mankind are disposed to sympathize more entirely with our joy than with our sorrow, that we make parade of our riches, and conceal our poverty. (Location 1150)
• Our obsequiousness to our superiors more frequently arises from our admiration for the advantages of their situation, than from any private expectations of benefit from their good-will. (Location 1201)

Chapter 3 - why Classes Corrupt Our Empathy

to admire (the rich) or to despite (the poor) because of anything that is not due to wisdom and virtue but rather their class is a corruption to our ability to sympathize in the right situations. Inequality

Quotes

• That wealth and greatness are often regarded with the respect and admiration which are due only to wisdom and virtue; and that the contempt, of which vice and folly are the only proper objects, is often most unjustly bestowed upon poverty and weakness, has been the complaint of moralists in all ages. (Location 1341)

Part 2 - on Merit of Reward and Punishment

Section 1 - on the Sense of Merit and Demerit

Chapter 1 - for what We Are Grateful, We Should Reward. what We Resent, We Should Punish.

Gratitude and resentment are the main emotions that drives us to want to praise or punish someone.

Quotes

Gratitude and resentment, therefore, are the sentiments which most immediately and directly prompt to reward and to punish. (Location 1478)

Chapter 2 - the Objects of Gratitude and Resentment

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Chapter 3 - Judgment on Actions Precedes Gratitude and Resentment

we can't sympathize with the subject of an action (the one who was helped, or the victim), without first attempting to sympathize with the one who acted. if we can:

1. Understand his motives
2. Agree with his motives

only then can we determine how to sympathize, if at all, with the subject. For example, we would not want to praise (and would sympathize with the subject), if the actor did a good thing by mistake, or from unknown reasons, like a con man that helps you when you know that he has other motives in mind.

Similarly, we would not sympathize with the victim if we knew that the actor did that from justified reasons, such as defending himself or his family.

Chapters 4 +5

(same idea)

Quotes

• We do not, therefore, thoroughly and heartily sympathize with the gratitude of one man towards another, merely because this other has been the cause of his good fortune, unless he has been the cause of it from motives which we entirely go along with. (Location 1559)
• Before we can adopt the resentment of the sufferer, we must disapprove of the motives of the agent, and feel that our heart renounces all sympathy with the affections which influenced his conduct. (Location 1572)

Section 2 - of Justice and Beneficence

Chapter 1 - Comparison of Those Two Virtues

justice is the minimal standard we all are obligated to meet. For example not hurting one another. In some sense, justice could be passive thing. Usually by doing nothing we can still abide by the laws of justice. justice is obedience Beneficence however is what we wish others would behave like. We can't coerce someone to be kind and giving, and this necessarily requires an action and perhaps a sacrifice from the actor. Intention While acts of justice can cause resentment and punishment, no one can be punished for not acting in a beneficial way. Similarly, we can't praise someone who acted justly, but will praise someone who is giving more than he ought to.

Chapter 2 - Justice, Remorse and Merit

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Chapter 3 - Constitution of Nature

justice is essential to the existence of society, while beneficiary is "nice to have". Society can exist without love and kindness, but can't exist when killing and stealing is too common.

Quotes

• Where the necessary assistance is reciprocally afforded from love, from gratitude, from friendship, and esteem, the society flourishes and is happy. All the different members of it are bound together by the agreeable bands of love and affection, and are, as it were, drawn to one common centre of mutual good offices. (Location 1773)
• Nature has implanted in the human breast that consciousness of ill-desert, those terrors of merited punishment which attend upon its violation, as the great safe-guards of the association of mankind, to protect the weak, to curb the violent, and to chastise the guilty. (Location 1790)

Section 2 - on Fortune and Sympathy

Chapter 1 - of the Causes of This Influence of Fortune

Luck can greatly affect how we see each other. A person who drove drunk and killed someone will be hated, and the one who didn't will be forgotten, simply because of the outcome, which was based on luck. They preformed the same action, and got different results.

Therefore, sympathy and resentment should be based on three things:

1. result - Whether it brings joy or pain (and the amount of it)
2. awareness - Whether the actor is aware that he has caused joy or pain
3. intent - Whether it was his intent, and design to cause such emotions

Quotes

• Before any thing, therefore, can be the complete and proper object, either of gratitude or resentment, it must possess three different qualifications. First, it must be the cause of pleasure in the one case, and of pain in the other. Secondly, it must be capable of feeling those sensations. And, thirdly, it must not only have produced those sensations, but it must in have produced them from design, and from a design that is approved of the one case, and disapproved of in the other. (Location 1967)

Chapter 2 - of the Effects of Fortune

as mentioned previously, it can enhance or subside our feelings of resentment and gratitude. A failed thief is punished less than a successful one, although they had the same intent. similarly, a messenger with good news will be rewarded while a messenger with bad news will be punished, although both did the same job.

While at first, it seems that intention should be our only method of judging people, it would be awful to actually implement it, causing a "thought police" without any regards to the actions of people, a "minority report" existence.

Therefore, our second best option is to remain with actions as our method for evaluating the moral level of a person. Utilitarianism

Quotes

• Our resentment against the person who only attempted to do a mischief, is seldom so strong as to bear us out in inflicting the same punishment upon him, which we should have thought due if he had actually done it. In the one case, the joy of our deliverance alleviates our sense of the atrocity of his conduct; in the other, the grief of our misfortune increases it. His real demerit, however, is undoubtedly the same in both cases, since his intentions were equally criminal; (Location 2052)

Part 3 - Foundations of Our Own Judgments on Our Sentiments, Actions and Duty

Section 1

Chapter 1 - of the Principle of Self Acceptance and Disapproval

the way we interact with others depend on the way we judge ourselves. A person who is sure of his beauty won't mind some jokes on his looks, while a person who feels ugly will be hurt by those jokes. We can sometimes become our own critics, splitting ourselves into two people, the actor and the viewer. form vs essence

Quotes

• Actions, therefore, which either produce actual evil, or attempt to produce it, and thereby put us in the immediate fear of it, are by the Author of nature rendered the only proper and approved objects of human punishment and resentment. (Location 2150)

Chapter 2 - the Love of Praise and Dread of Blame

we don't only seek praise, but also to be praise worthy. These two desires are the core of virtue. If we only wished for praise, we would have acted in a deceiving manner, falsely presenting ourselves as if we have done something that merits praise. But since we also search for praise worthiness, we know, and judge ourselves, to act in a way that it truly praise worthy, and not the mere façade of it. This is in essence, virtue. Authenticity

Quotes

• We are pleased, not only with praise, but with having done what is praise-worthy. (Location 2308)
• It is only the weakest and most superficial of mankind who can be much delighted with that praise which they themselves know to be altogether unmerited. (Location 2333)

Chapter 3 - the Influence of Conscience

we have a tendency to prefer first ourselves, than those around us, and finally those who are remote to us. Sympathy is affected by distance us vs them. But this preference is only legitimate when we are not those who are responsible for the situation. If we must act, we must be impartial, even if the gain to us is larger than the loss to them. If we cannot act in anyway, then we shouldn't care.

This acceptance of what can and can't be done is not the only thing we should adopt from the stoicism. We can also see that approval and disapproval of an emotion matches the level of self control that we posses. As mentioned earlier, a man who has experienced hardship but acts in a calm and noble way will get the most praise.

There is a link between sympathy and self control. Those who sympathize the most, are most likely those who can also exert the most self control, since (as mentioned), to be sympathetic is to be aware of the feelings of others, and to match your emotional level to theirs. Therefore, if you can regulate your emotional level in order to connect to others, than you just exhibited self control.

Similarly, the connection is bi-directional. Those who can exhibit self control can be highly sympathetic, which makes them great leaders. They will not enjoy the suffering of their enemies, and would make decisions that are for the benefit of all.

To be truly moral, you have to be around impartial spectators. Since those around us, friends, family, fans, tend (either truthfully or by means of deceiving) embrace our happiness and sorrow more easily than it should be, than we don't get to truly fulfill our capability of sympathy and self regulation, which is a short way to corrupt our moral sentiments. peer support For example, if for any hardship we face we get immediate assistance and sympathy, how will we ever learn to self control? How would we appreciate the hardship of others if ours is always the most important and severe (while it actually isn't)?

Therefore, take yourself out to the world, interact with strangers, this is truly the only way to nourish your moral sentiments.

Quotes

• That we should be but little interested, therefore, in the fortune of those whom we can neither serve nor hurt, and who are in every respect so very remote from us, seems wisely ordered by Nature; and if it were possible to alter in this respect the original constitution of our frame, we could yet gain nothing by the change. (Location 2692)
• The degree of the self-approbation with which every man, upon such occasions, surveys his own conduct, is higher or lower, exactly in proportion to the degree of self-command which is necessary in order to obtain that self-approbation. (Location 2813)
• Misery and wretchedness can never enter the breast in which dwells complete self-satisfaction; (Location 2825)
• The person best fitted by nature for acquiring the former of those two sets of virtues, is likewise best fitted for acquiring the latter. The man who feels the most for the joys and sorrows of others, is best fitted for acquiring the most complete control of his own joys and sorrows. The man of the most exquisite humanity, is naturally the most capable of acquiring the highest degree of self-command. (Location 2919)
• The propriety of our moral sentiments is never so apt to be corrupted, as when the indulgent and partial spectator is at hand, while the indifferent and impartial one is at a great distance. (Location 2959)
• Of all the corrupters of moral sentiments, therefore, faction and fanaticism have always been by far the greatest. (Location 2992)

Chapter 4 - of the Nature of Self Deceit

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Quotes

• If we saw ourselves in the light in which others see us, or in which they would see us if they knew all, a reformation would generally be unavoidable. We could not otherwise endure the sight. Nature, however, has not left this weakness, which is of so much importance, altogether without a remedy; nor has she abandoned us entirely to the delusions of self-love. (Location 3041)

Chapter 5 - of the Influence of the General Rules of Morality

We all have embedded rules of perusing justice and fairness, virtue and honor and similarly to avoid cases of vice, shame and resentment. Those rules have been posed on us by nature, a desire so strong that we have previously associated it with god, and thanks to early religion that has enforced these rules upon everyone when philosophy was still young. It is these rules, along what we learn from sympathy that keeps society in check.

Quotes

• religion, even in its rudest form, gave a sanction to the rules of morality, long before the age of artificial reasoning and philosophy. (Location 3159)
• Those vice-gerents of God within us, never fail to punish the violation of them, by the torments of inward shame, and self-condemnation; and on the contrary, always reward obedience with tranquillity of mind, with contentment, and self-satisfaction. (Location 3185)

Chapter 6 - when Duty Should Be Our only Motive

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Part 4 - of the Effect of Utility on the Sentiment of Approval

Section 1

Chapter 1 - Beauty, Utility and Art

There is beauty in things that are useful. For example, we tend to envy the rich, not necessarily because we thing that they're happier, but rather because they have more means of happiness (their property)

This beauty is the result of a complicated system, that moves us all in terns as is an invisible hand. The rich don't consume more than the poor, but have greater wealth, which means that it trickles down eventually to the poor. Thanks to their selfishness, others are able to enjoy their fruits of production as well.

Quotes

• it is not so much upon account of the superior ease or pleasure which they are supposed to enjoy, as of the numberless artificial and elegant contrivances for promoting this ease or pleasure. He does not even imagine that they are really happier than other people: but he imagines that they possess more means of happiness. (Location 3509)

Chapter 2 - Beauty and Actions

While the beauty of a well functioning system is a source of enjoyment, it is not the cause of the people's actions, at least not in a direct sense. A person who sacrifices himself for his commander doesn't do it out of his love or care for his commander, but rather because he thinks that this is the right act based on the views of the impartial spectator.

Part 5 - Customs and Fashion's Effect on Our Moral Sentiments

Chapter 1 - of the Influence of Custom and Fashion upon Our Notions of Beauty

Custom forces us to see certain things in a given way. Some of it is culturally based, for example in one country being tall is beautiful, while in others it's being without facial hair. But some of it is common to all people, such as symmetry.

Chapter 2 - of the Influence of Custom and Fashion on Moral Sentiments

No notes

Quotes

• When custom and fashion coincide with the natural principles of right and wrong, they heighten the delicacy of our sentiments, and increase our abhorrence for every thing which approaches to evil. (Location 3845)
• We suffer more, it has already been observed, when we fall from a better to a worse situation, than we ever enjoy when we rise from a worse to a better. (Location 4077)
• Prudence, in short, when directed merely to the care of the health, of the fortune, and of the rank and reputation of the individual, though it is regarded as a most respectable and even, in some degree, as an amiable and agreeable quality, yet it never is considered as one, either of the most endearing, or of the most ennobling of the virtues. (Location 4135)
• As prudence combined with other virtues, constitutes the noblest; so imprudence combined with other vices, constitutes the vilest of all characters. (Location 4169)

Part 6 - of the Character of virtue

Section 1 - of the Character of the Individual, as it Affects Himself

Prudence is one of the most important yet neglected virtues. Since we humans tend to have loss aversion, it is essential to our wellbeing to be prudent. To never declare skills we don't have, venture with money that can be lost, or taking responsibly when time is short.

Section 2 - of the Character of the Individual, as it Affects Others

Chapter 1 - the order in Which We Prefer Others

We tend to love ourselves the most, then our family, then friends and neighbors (if they have good character).

Quotes

• Kindness is the parent of kindness; and if to be beloved by our brethren be the great object of our ambition, the surest way of obtaining it is, by our conduct to show that we really love them. (Location 4332)

Chapter 2 - the order in Which We Prefer Societies

We are born with a tendency to love the society which we were born into.

Chapter 3 - Universal Benevolence

as much as we would have wished to care for everyone in the world, it is beyond our ability. This is the realm of god, and we have to trust his plan. We, as small pieces on the board, have to take care of what's in our responsibility which is our family, friends and country. effective altruism

Quotes

• the care of the universal happiness of all rational and sensible beings, is the business of God and not of man. To man is allotted a much humbler department, but one much more suitable to the weakness of his powers, and to the narrowness of his comprehension—the care of his own happiness, of that of his family, his friends, his country: (Location 4548)

Section 3 - on Self Control

Perfect knowledge is useless without self control to be moral is to act moral. We have to learn to control the two greatest emotions - fear and anger. Anger pushes us to act implosively, and fear pushes us to not act at all.

self control is not apathy, and we have no admiration for a person who feels nothing. The highest admiration, and virtue, arises from he who feels everything, and yet exhibit self control. This is also the case for the actor. The one who doesn't care about his own pain, how could he care for the pain of others? Self Worth

There is a connection between the esteem you give to yourself, and the esteem you get from others. As is in other cases, the best case is when you act according to the level of the impartial spectator. Give yourself too much credit, be too proud or vain, and you will get nothing in return. Similarly, give yourself too little, you will most likely not get a lot from others as well. Only he who evaluate himself just in the right amount not only receives the esteem he deserves, but will probably be the only one satisfied with it. The law of reverse effect.

Quotes

• The most perfect knowledge, if it is not supported by the most perfect self-command, will not always enable him to do his duty. (Location 4560)
• Self-command is not only itself a great virtue, but from it all the other virtues seem to derive their principal lustre. (Location 4627)
• The man who has little resentment for the injuries which are done to himself, must always have less for those which are done to other people, and be less disposed either to protect or to avenge them. (Location 4694)
• Our sensibility to the pleasures, to the amusements and enjoyments of human life, may offend, in the same manner, either by its excess or by its defect. Of the two, however, the excess seems less disagreeable than the defect. (Location 4720)
• The man who esteems himself as he ought, and no more than he ought, seldom fails to obtain from other people all the esteem that he himself thinks due. He desires no more than is due to him, and he rests upon it with complete satisfaction. The proud and the vain man, on the contrary, are constantly dissatisfied. (Location 5013)
• to the man who under-rates himself, unless we have both more discernment and more generosity than belong to the greater part of men, we seldom fail to do, at least, all the injustice which he does to himself, and frequently a great deal more. (Location 5024)

Part 7 - Systems of Moral Philosophy

Section 1 - Relevant Questions for Theory of Moral Sentiment

1. what does it mean to be virtuous
2. where does the drive to be virtuous comes from?

Section 2 - Nature of virtue

Chapter 1 - Systems Which Make virtue Consist in Propriety

according to Plato, virtue is the result of harmony between three different parts of the soul:

1. Reason
2. Noble emotions
3. Pursuit of pleasure

when each section does it's job properly, without negating the role of the other sections, then we have achieved virtuous actions. For example, when the reason directs us towards helping someone else, and this is our desire according to the noble emotions, and we enjoy doing it, this is harmony and virtue.

virtue according to Aristotle: To Aristotle, virtue lies in proper habits that direct us towards a middle ground between two extremes. Too much bravery is stupidity, and too little is cowardice.

Virtue according to zeno: We are all guided by self love, so we should do what supports ourselves, in the true sense of the word. To live according to nature. Health, wisdom, but also the well being of others, friendship, are the things most essential to us.

virtue according to Stoicism: To live in accordance with nature, means knowing what is and is not in your control. We should be unaffected by the latter, and simply act when it is in our control. Good and bad, happy and sad are matters of personal judgment, not a natural fact embedded in the event.

Quotes

• when reason directed and passion obeyed, and when each passion performed its proper duty, and exerted itself towards its proper object easily and without reluctance, and with that degree of force and energy, which was suitable to the value of what it pursued. In this consisted that complete virtue, (Location 5165)

Chapter 2 - of Systems Which Make virtue Consist in Prudence

the best way to have the reputation of a virtuous person, is to truly be virtuous.

Quotes

• if you would be reckoned sober, temperate, just, and equitable, the best way of acquiring this reputation is to become sober, temperate, just, and equitable. (Location 5693)

Chapter 3 - of Systems Which Make virtue Consist in Benevolence

benevolence is the highest form of virtue. An act that is caused solely by our desire to help others, out of authentic connection, and to the betterment of others is the perfect virtue.

Quotes

• In directing all our actions to promote the greatest possible good, in submitting all inferior affections to the desire of the general happiness of mankind, in regarding one’s self but as one of the many, whose prosperity was to be pursued no further than it was consistent with, or conducive to, that of the whole, consisted the perfection of virtue. (Location 5778)

Chapter 4 - of Ludicrous Systems

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Section 3 - Different Systems Which Were Formed concerning the Principle of Approbation

Chapter 1 - Approbation due to Self Love

Sympathy is not out of self love, because we don't imagine ourselves in your situation, importing your emotions into our world view, but rather we bring ourselves into your shoes and eyes, feeling your pain.

Chapter 2 - Approbation due to Reason

While reason is the method by which we discover the first principles of morality, it is not the first source of those. Virtues and vice are agreeable and pleasurable due to sensations, and not bursts of reason. Therefore our sensations must track (most of the time?) The moral principles which can be detected by logic.

Quotes

• It is by reason that we discover those general rules of justice by which we ought to regulate our actions: (Location 6100)
• If virtue, therefore, in every particular instance, necessarily pleases for its own sake, and if vice as certainly displeases the mind, it cannot be reason, but immediate sense and feeling, which, in this manner, reconciles us to the one, and alienates us from the other. (Location 6119)
• First, we sympathize with the motives of the agent; secondly, we enter into the gratitude of those who receive the benefit of his actions; thirdly, we observe that his conduct has been agreeable to the general rules by which those two sympathies generally act; and, last of all, when we consider such actions as making a part of a system of behaviour which tends to promote the happiness either of the individual or of the society, (Location 6239)

Chapter 3 - Approbation due to Sentiments

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