Reimagining Sympathy, Recognizing Difference: Insights from Adam Smith

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Contemporary societies are marked by deep inequalities grounded in collective failures to recognize the histories, needs, and experiences of marginalized social groups. What are the strategies that can help individuals become more responsive to social realities and perspectives that differ significantly from their own In Reimagining Sympathy, Recognizing Difference: Insights from Adam Smith, Millicent Churcher attends to recent debates over the imagination as a resource for social and political reform, and highlights the central relevance of Adam Smiths voice to these debates. Smith, best known for his work on economics, may seem an unlikely figure to draw upon in this context. However, his nuanced account of sympathyconceived as an imaginative and reflective capacity that develops within and through social experiencegreatly enriches the role of imagination in fostering mutual understanding and solidarity among a diverse citizenry. Churcher critically explores and extends Smiths view that if sympathy is to bind people together across their differences rather than divide them, it requires work at the level of individual practice, as well as the support of wider social structures. By drawing Smith into conversation with contemporary debates in social and political theory, this monograph addresses the pressing question of what is required from individuals and institutions to remedy abject failures to recognize and respond ethically to difference.

Reviews

In this book, Millicent Churcher engages with Australasian thinkers, bringing them into dialogue with social epistemology and critical race theory. This book also performs an important theoretical role of bringing into contact recent works on social imagination with their historical forebear, Adam Smith. -- Joanne Faulkner, ARC Future Fellow in Cultural Studies, Macquarie University
This timely book is a strong contribution to recent and ongoing discussions in political philosophy concerning the role of emotions and the imagination in issues of justice (including communicative and epistemic justice), recognition, social peace, identity/difference and equality. -- Jos Medina, Walter Dill Scott Professor of Philosophy, Northwestern University
This distinctive intervention features studies on the continuing oppression of First Nations in Australia, and a unique interpretation of Smithian virtues. -- Jeremy C A Smith, Associate Professor of Sociology, Federation University Australia

Author Bio

Millicent Churcher is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Sydney. Millicents research interests include the early modern sentimentalist philosophy of David Hume and Adam Smith, as well as contemporary studies on empathy, emotions, social imaginaries, epistemic injustice, and the (mis)recognition of difference. She has published work on these topics in Social Epistemology and Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review. Millicents latest research focuses on how institutions may constructively engage the imaginations and affects of social agents to facilitate ethical and political transformation.