Both Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his friend Adam Smith agreed that modern humans were vain creatures, ceaselessly adjusting and masking themselves to gain the favour of others. However, as this short video from BBC Global explains, the two 18th-century intellectual heavyweights arrived at very different conclusions regarding whether this state of human affairs was a great social ill or a social benefit. Exploring both of their perspectives, Nat Rutherford – a lecturer in political theory at Royal Holloway, University of London – details why Rousseau believed vanity left us incapable of genuine self-assessment, while Smith thought it was indispensable if modern societies were to flourish.
Why Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith were divided on the virtues of vanity
Video by BBC Global
Writer and host: Nat Rutheford
13 January 2025
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