Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the interesting contribution that the Adam Smith's ethics of sympathy offers in order to investigate process and dynamics behind the development of the moral self-image. With the theory of the impartial spectator, he discusses the dimension of alterity present in the moral conscience and connects her origin to the material presence of others, without which every self-evaluation would be impossible. His theory offers the opportunity to analyse the different and conflicting needs at the base of the «game» of images through which Smith outlines the origin and development of the moral conscience within a horizon marked by the primacy of the observational-spectatorial dimension.