Addison and Smith: Freedom and Responsibility

Freedom and Responsibility in Addison and Smith

Topic

This set of readings pairs two key works of the eighteenth century––Joseph Addison’s Cato and Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments. Chief among the thematic links between the two works is stoicism, for Addison’s depiction of Cato the Younger’s final days nicely complements Smith’s treatment of “self-command,” of moral duty, of Stoicism, and of the character of virtue.

Guide to the Readings

Editions used:

• Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, ed. D.D. Raphael and A.L. Macfie, vol. I of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982).
• Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy and Selected Essays, ed. by Christine Dunn Henderson and Mark E. Yellin, with a Foreword by Forrest McDonald (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2004).
• David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, edited and with a Foreword, Notes, and Glossary by Eugene F. Miller, with an appendix of variant readings from the 1889 edition by T.H. Green and T.H. Grose, revised edition (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1987).

See also in the Online Library of Liberty:

• Collections: The Scottish Enlightenment
• Joseph Addison (1672-1719)
• Adam Smith (1723-1790)
• David Hume (1711-1776)

Session I: Character, Stoicism, and Heroism in “Cato.”

Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy

• Prologue, Act I, Act II

Session II: Character, Stoicism, and Heroism in “Cato.”

Joseph Addison, Cato: A Tragedy

• Act III, Act IV, Act V, and Epilogue

Session III: Judgment, Justice, and Beneficence

Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments

• Part II, Section II “Of Justice and Beneficence”
• Part III “Of the Foundations of our Judgments concerning our own Sentiments and Conduct, and of the Sense of Duty”

Session IV: : The Character of Virtue

Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments

• Part VI “Of the Character of Virtue”

Session V: Stoicism, Happiness, and Virtue

Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments

• Part VII “Of the Systems which make Virtue consist in Propriety”

Session VI: Virtue, Stoicism, and Human Freedom

David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary

• “The Stoic” and “Of Moral Prejudices”