Studies in the History of Philosophy
Email the author 
Adam Smith and Sophie de Grouchy on Education
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/szhf.2019.036
Abstract
The paper analyses Adam Smith’s and Sophie de Grouchy’s views concerning education. It addresses both the issues of formal education in institutions for instruction as well as it mentions an informal transfer of values within the family and the society. The brief characteristic of the notions of sympathy and an impartial spectator precedes the discussion of the goals education should serve. It is an individual’s development that is the core issue of the thinkers’ considerations. The benefits for the society, at least in Smith’s case, are important, yet subordinate. Both of the philosophers presented a critique of existing educational institutions. Smith’s views on ways of financing universities and schools are also summarized in the paper. Moreover, a discussion on the issues of educating children and adults is presented, mentioning the importance of universal access to knowledge. It is the idea that people need to achieve the ability to think critically and not to learn the rules (also those of morality) by heart that marks the significance of Smith’s and de Grouchy’s philosophy of education.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Broadie Alexander. 2006. “Sympathy and the Impartial Spectator”. In: The Cambridge Companion to Adam Smith. Ed. Knud Haakonssen, 158–188. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Broadie Alexander. 2012. Agreeable Connections. Scottish Enlightenment links to France. Edinburgh: Birlinn Ltd.
Brown Karin. 2008. Sophie de Grouchy Letters on Sympathy (1798) a Critical Edition, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series. Vol. 98. No. 4. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
Griswold Charles L. 2012. Adam Smith and the Virtues of Enlightenment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
De Grouchy Sophie. 2008. “Letters on Sympathy”. In: Sophie de Grouchy Letters on Sympathy (1798) a Critical Edition. Ed. Karin Brown. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series. Vol. 98. No. 4. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.
Haakonssen Knud. 1999. The Science of a Legislator. The Natural Jurisprudence of David Hume and Adam Smith, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kennedy Gavin. 2008. Adam Smith. A Moral Philosopher and His Political Economy. New York/Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Markwart Anna. 2017. Bogactwo uczuć moralnych. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK.
Nurock Vanessa. 2003. “Le spectre sympathique: Typologie des formes de sympathie dans la Théorie des sentiments moraux”. In: Adam Smith et l’origine du libéralisme. Ed. Michaël Biziou, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Otteson James R. 2002. Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Paganelli Maria Pia. 2018. “Smith and the Scottish model of education”. In: Adam Smith Review. Vol. 10. Ed. Fonna Forman, London: Routledge. 92–104.
Raphael David D. 2009. The Impartial Spectator. Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Rothschild Emma. 1998. “Condorcet and Adam Smith on Education and Instruction”. In: Philosophers on Education. Ed. Amelie O. Rorty, London: Routledge, 208–225.
Skinner Andrew. 1990. Adam Smith: Liberalism and Education. University of Glasgow Discussion Papers in Economics. No. 9002: Glasgow.
Skinner Andrew. 1995. Adam Smith: Education as a Public Service. University of Glasgow Discussion Papers in Economics. No. 9117: Glasgow.
Smith Adam. 1981. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of Wealth of Nations. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Smith Adam. 1982. “Of the External Senses”. In: A. Smith, Essays on Philosophical Subjects. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Smith Adam. 1982. Lectures on Jurisprudence. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Smith Adam. 1982. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Smith Adam. 1985. Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
Teixeira P. N. 2007. “Dr Smith and the moderns: Adam Smith and the development of human capital theory”. In: Adam Smith Review. Vol. 3. Ed. Vivienne Brown, 139–158. London and New York: Routledge.
Weinstein Jack R. 2007. “Introduction: Adam Smith’s philosophy of education”. In: Adam Smith Review. Vol. 3. Ed. Vivienne Brown, 51–74, London & New York: Routledge.
Weinstein Jack R. 2013. Adam Smith’s Pluralism. Rationality, Education and the Moral Sentiments. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
