ADAM SMITH'S CONCEPT OF SELF-COMMAND AS A SOLUTION TO DYNAMIC INCONSISTENCY AND THE COMMITMENT PROBLEM

How is rationality related to morality and the emotions? In response to Hume, Smith argues that sympathy is about the attenuation, rather than the escalation, of original emotions because sympathy involves judgment. Sympathy means that the spectator understands an emotion felt by the principal by placing him or herself in the principal’s shoes. Such understanding would not take place unless the principal’s emotion is proper in that the principal has attenuated the pitch of the emotion via self‐command, that is, via rational choice. Smith’s notion of sympathy solves the commitment problem: agents command their emotions, which include the temptation to cheat their future selves and others, in order to receive approval. (JEL B12, D01, D64)