Regular readers may recall that I have been interested in Sophie de Grouchy's account of enthusiasm (recall here and here) which is very important to her account of demagogues (recall also here, and here). Grouchy’s Letters on Sympathy [hereafter: LS] was first published appended to her (1798) French translation of the final (sixth) edition Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments [hereafter: TMS] and Dissertation on the Origin of Languages [hereafter: Languages]. The Dissertation was added by Smith to the third edition of TMS.
Grouchy was no slavish follower, or enthusiast, of Smith. This is immediately clear when one notes that in the first five editions of TMS, Smith never mentions ‘enthusiasm’ or its cognates. However, in the final edition, Smith inserted a whole new book (VI). And in it Smith uses ‘enthusiastic’ four times: the first time is in the context of his discussion of aesthetic experience of tragedy itself offered as an illustration of an “unnecessary” observation that “the combination of two, or more, of those exciting causes of kindness, increases the kindness:”
The most interesting subjects of tragedies and romances are the misfortunes of virtuous and magnanimous kings and princes. If, by the wisdom and manhood of their exertions, they should extricate themselves from those misfortunes, and recover completely their former superiority and security, we cannot help viewing them with the most enthusiastic and even extravagant admiration. (TMS VI.ii. i .21, p 226)
Here enthusiasm is both (i) the effect on us of our witnessing a merited revival of good fortune and (ii) a means by which another sentiment, admiration, is (to put it in Humean terms) enlivened or heightened. I have argued, following Karen Valihora, that in Smith, admiration is primarily either an intellectual sentiment or an aesthetic one; it is caused by what is "great and beautiful" when we encounter something new or rare. But as the examples below reveal, we can come to admire features of people's characters, too. Interestingly enough, there is a sense, then, that when we do so, we objectify them.
The second use of ‘enthusiastic’ also involves an heightened admiration. But here enthusiasm is a by-product of intense (merited) admiration of magnanimity such that it “often inflame that sentiment into the most enthusiastic and rapturous veneration.” (TMS VI.iii.5, 238) Here ‘enthusiastic’ is primarily a way to characterize the intensity of the feeling (admiration/veneration).
The third use of ‘enthusiastic’ also involves heightened admiration, but it is introduced by way of contrast to merited admiration. It occurs in the context of a corrupt kind of admiration:
It is otherwise with that admiration which he is apt to conceive for their excessive self-estimation and presumption. While they are successful, indeed, he is often perfectly conquered and overborne by them. Success covers from his eyes, not only the great imprudence, but frequently the great injustice of their enterprises; and, far from blaming this defective part of their character, he often views it with the most enthusiastic admiration. (TMS VI.iii.30, 252)
Here Smith is illustrating one of his key claims: that our moral sentiments are corrupted by our admiration for wealth and power. This had been the topic of a new chapter (1.iii.3), inserted, at the start of book I in the final revised edition of TMS. Here enthusiasm is also an effect that intensifies the emotion to which it is attached. But here the triggering cause is our misplaced attentiveness to other people’s success (riches, status, etc.)
Finally, in the fourth use of ‘enthusiastic’ it also attached to intensified admiration. Smith writes, in one one of my favorite passages, “To a real wise man the judicious and well-weighed approbation of a single wise man, gives more heartfelt satisfaction than all the noisy applauses of ten thousand ignorant though enthusiastic admirers.” (TMS VI.iii. 3I, 253.) Here the object of enthusiasm is merited, but the subject feeling it is not a proper judge. Enthusiasm is here a disfiguring characteristic—a mark of ignorant admiration
It is notable that Smith uses ‘enthusiasm’ exclusively in cases related to admiration. By contrast, Hume (recall) uses ‘enthusiasm’ and ‘enthusiastic’ more frequently and to refer to the intensification of far wider ranges of emotions. In fact, only once that Hume use ‘enthusiasm’ in a manner reminiscent of Smith’s usage discussed here. In the Histories, he describes how (merited) admiration of Queen Elizabeth’s spirited behaviour by the soldiers at Tilbury turned their attachment to her into a kind of enthusiasm. (H 42.64; this is from volume 4) As is well known, Hume is especially (but not exclusively) interested in the form of enthusiasm that corrupts "true religion."
To sum up: Smith treats enthusiasm as an enlivening feature of admiration or the effect of heightened admiration. When we are virtuous it is caused by characters worthy of excessive admiration. When we are ignorant or corrupted, enthusiasm can get attached, as a form of intensification, to admiration of unpraiseworthy characters or praiseworthy characters for the wrong reasons. It is the latter, in particular, that concerns Grouchy when she reflects on the grip demagogues have over us. But about that more soon.
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