A Heart in the Door

[Adam] Smith makes it clear that political economy is founded upon that area of morality which is to do with self-interest. ‘Pure benevolence’ he avers, is suited only to a non-dependent being, namely God, whereas human beings must take account of the more self-interested virtues of ‘propriety’, which entail habits of economy, industry and discretion, the judicious spending of our own resources. The justice founded upon this propriety is not the ‘distributive justice’ of classical political theory, nor a justice first and foremost concerned with the common good. For Aquinas it had appeared that liberality and magnanimity were naturally more self-interested than justice, as they concerned especially the virtue of the donor, whereas justice was uniquely concerned with the well-being of the other person. Yet for Smith the position is reversed: as ‘self-interest’ is to do with ‘self-preservation’, not ‘being virtuous’, justice which secures private self-interest is the most ‘interested’ virtue and benevolence the most ‘disinterested’. (Note, however, that Aquinas is here discussing ‘natural’ virtue and perhaps reflects too Greek a viewpoint. Does not charity, which is equally ‘interested’ and ‘disinterested’, really subsume magnanimity for Christianity?) Benevolence and charity, moreover, are confined to a private and familial world. Here alone one can in some measure depend upon selfless actions which are inherently unpredictable, but for society at large benevolence is merely ornamental. Political economy therefore defines itself at the outset by obliterating the Christian sphere of public charity.