Empathy as a constituent of social reality: an ontological reading of Adam Smith
从本体论角度解读亚当·斯密，揭示其共情理论不仅关乎伦理，还涉及社会现象，特别是共情局限产生的需求间主体性，并尝试扩展托尼·劳森的社会本体论框架。
Abstract This paper makes a contribution to the literature on ontology and the history of economic thought firstly by providing an ontological reading of Adam Smith and then by expanding the analysis to accommodate a key ontological feature of the Smithian theory—the intersubjectivity of needs emerging from the limits of empathy. This reading of Adam Smith reveals his theory of empathy is not only related to ethics, but also to social phenomena. The intersubjective needs that the limits of our empathy have brought into existence are shown here as one such social phenomenon and can thus be considered a proper subject of social ontology. The paper tries to expand the social ontological project of Tony Lawson so as to accommodate analysis of such a concept of need.