/lit/ - Literature

The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion - Zaller
The Spiral of Silence - Noelle-Neumann
Crystallizing Public Opinion - Bernays
Public Opinion - Lippmann
'The Agenda-Setting Function of Mass Media' - McCombs & Shaw
Manufacturing Consent - Chomsky
'Political Preference Formation: Competition, Deliberation, and the (Ir)relevance of Framing Effects' - Druckman

>>17254003
Sorry it's late, but i got held up with other obligations. It is also far too long but i cant be bothered to edit it down more.
First it will be useful to look at the account of Sympathy and Self-love which Smith gives, which will help clear up the confusion.
For Smith, Sympathy is the natural tendency of humans towards a 'fellow-feeling' of others. In modern usage it may be something closer to empathy, but more nuanced. Initially we see
>Whatever is the passion which arises from any object in the person principally concerned, an analogous emotion springs up, at the at the thought of his situation, in the breast of the spectator [...] Sympathy ... denote[s] our fellow-feeling with any passion whatever.
From this we can say that Sympathy for Smith involves the feelings which spring up upon viewing the actions or situation of another person. But, as the last part indicates, this is not limited to positive sentiments: it may be that by Sympathy we feel great anger, or disgust, envy or pride, as much as me may feel pity or another traditionally sympathetic emotion. But the mechanism of Sympathy isn't a mirroring of another's emotions, but rather a mirroring of their situation.
>As we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are affected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation. [...] by the imagination we place ourselves in his situation [...] for as to be in pain or distress of any kind excites the most excessive sorrow, so to conceive or to imagine that we are in it, excites some degree of the same emotion, in proportion to the vivacity or dullness of the conception.
So as we can see, what Sympathy truly is, in Smith's mind, is a projection of yourself into the situation of another. This is a subtle, but important difference to simply mirroring emotions: every individuals Sympathetic projection is shaded by their own opinions, experiences, and values. And indeed, we often turn this Sympathy on ourselves, which is what the Impartial Spectator is: a sympathetic imagination of how others would view us in the situation we are in. In a way this spectator represents the customs and mores of society, but always in respect to how they impact on ourselves and our reputation in the eyes of others.

The Wealth of Nations is more of a sociology/political economy book than an economics textbook. That said, you should definitely read it (along with his Theory of Moral Sentiments) because Smith is one of the few truly revolutionary thinkers in the history of political philosophy.

>>17086502
Princes of Yen