Sympathy, Self-Interest, Utilitarianism

Even the staunchest advocate of Sympathy as a Moral principle might have difficulty denying that it is as much an intra-psychic datum as is any selfish feeling. Accordingly, the only Utilitarian ground for adjudicating between Sympathy and Self-Interest is on the basis of pursuing pleasure/avoiding pain, i. e. the calculus recognizes no inherent distinction between them. Thus, if there is a systematic incoherence entailed in Smith's promotion of Self-Interest in Wealth of Nations, it is not with respect to his advocacy of Sympathy elsewhere, as some propose. It is as a violation of any subscription to Utilitarian methodology, determination by which is lacking in that promotion. Most of his successors and commentators similarly accept the Sympathy vs. Self-Interest false antithesis at face value.