Adam Smith’s Impartial Spectator Is Also Well-informed

When we use the shorthand ‘impartial spectator,’ we should not forget that the Smithian authoritative moral perspective is also well-informed. But is there anything more to say about the import and nature of this qualification? In this paper, I argue that the only way for Smith to explain how we can correct two kinds of problematic moral judgments is by invoking well-informedness, understood in a way that involves information about the psychology of moral judgment. I also argue that this interpretation reveals a crucial way in which The Theory of Moral Sentiments functions as a morally educational text.