Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol

“The common understanding of politics, since the time of Hobbes and Locke, has taken the balancing of liberty and authority as the central issue.” (Strauss & Cropsey 1987, p. 717) Thomas S. Kuhn wrote about the “essential tension” between tradition … Continue reading →

Last week (see links below), I surveyed a new paper in Econ Journal Watch by Daniel Klein, Nicholas Swanson, and Jeffrey Young on Adam Smith’s impartial spectator. Today, I want to conclude this series of blog posts with a question … Continue reading →

In addition to the three Adam Smith quotes from TMS cited by Daniel Klein, Nicholas Swanson, and Jeffrey Young (KSY) in their new paper in Econ Journal Watch on the impartial spectator (see Klein et al. 2025, pp. 304-305; see … Continue reading →

Continued from my previous post: Is Adam Smith’s impartial spectator a deity or just a heuristic device? To recap, my colleagues Daniel Klein, Nicholas Swanson, and Jeffrey Young claim that this imaginary entity is a “universal, super-knowledgeable, and benevolent beholder” … Continue reading →

As I have mentioned in my last few posts, my colleagues Daniel Klein, Nicholas Swanson, and Jeffrey Young have published a new paper in Econ Journal Watch about one of the most original and fascinating ideas in the work of … Continue reading →

Thus far this week (see here and here), I have posed a first-order question about Adam Smith’s “impartial spectator”: who, or what, is this imaginary moral judge? (See, for example, the short video posted below.) I, however, will now have … Continue reading →

I began my previous post by asking, Who (or what?) is the “impartial spectator” in Adam Smith’s first magnum opus, The Theory of Moral Sentiments? (This is just one of the many open “Adam Smith problems” my colleague and friend … Continue reading →

My colleagues Daniel Klein, Nicholas Swanson, and Jeffrey Young provide their interpretation of Adam Smith’s imaginary being in their essay “The Impartial Spectator Rises” in the most recent issue of Econ Journal Watch (see here or below). As it happens, … Continue reading →