ABSTRACT
Αdam Smith’s Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres gradually move center stage in Smith scholarship. Yet the connections between the belles-lettriste tradition and Smith’s moral and social philosophy are far from being thoroughly explored. In this chapter, I investigate the sources of Smith’s conception of ridicule and satire. In this context, I focus in turn first on Lucian’s reception in early modern European letters, then on the more obscure French sources of comedy and satire in Smith, with special attention paid to Crébillon son. I argue that the notion of persiflage, routinely used in the French salons and aristocratic societies throughout the 17th and 18th centuries to mark the ridicule of those unable to master the ever-changing nuances and the language(s) of social distinction, plays an important role in Smith’s understanding of French classicism. Alongside the widespread Lucianic style of deflation of greatness, extreme ambition and fame, the French context helps to better grasp the social and cultural background of ridicule during the 18th century. The chapter brings to the fore the importance of ridicule and satire to be properly understood for modern civility.
