Intersubjectivity and Objectivity in Adam Smith and Edmund Husserl

Book excerpt: Can we have objective knowledge of the world? Can we understand what is morally right or wrong? According to Adam Smith and Edmund Husserl, the answer is yes, to some extent. While they both rejected David Hume's skeptical account of what we can hope to understand, they held his empirical method in high regard, inquiring into the way we perceive and emotionally experience the world, into the nature and function of human empathy, and sympathy and the role of the imagination in processes of intersubjective understanding. The challenge is to overcome the natural constraints of perceptual and emotional experience and reach an agreement that is informed by the facts in the world and the nature of morality. This collection addresses theories of objective knowledge and proper morality, which are informed by the way we perceive, think, and communicate.