ABSTRACT
The last twenty years have seen a veritable renaissance of interest in Adam Smith not only within the disciplines that have traditionally engaged him, but among philosophers, political and social theorists, anthropologists, psychologists and students of communication, of culture, of gender, of literature, among others. More recently, it has not been unusual to see Smith summoned in yet another debate, one that revolves around themes of cosmopolitanism and humanitarian action. For some, Smith’s ideas of moral spectatorship and sympathetic imagination in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) provide a useful language for describing a human tendency to feel compassion for suffering people, even those at a distance, which might then ground a corollary duty to provide humanitarian relief. This casual appropriation may not sit well with those who are intimate with Smith’s texts; but in times like ours, when millions in Africa are dying of AIDS, when displaced peoples roam the globe tattered and hungry in search of a home, when women, minorities, foreigners and the poor are often subjected to the most horrifying and dehumanizing forms of coercion and degradation, it is not surprising that Smith’s thoughts on sympathy have seemed poignant and relevant for a good number of people.
