Adam Smith offered a characteristically pungent insight on the subject of the human capacity for self-deceit in his 1759 book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. I quote here from the always-useful 1790 edition available online at the Library of Economics and Liberty website.Now we call this "cognitive bias."
Convertible Economist
Adam Smith on Human Capacity for Self-Deceit
Timothy Taylor | Managing editor of the Journal of Economic Perspectives, based at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota
I think that the real problem with the last few centuries has been the deceit of economic liberalism that Adam Smith fathered. Is there any chance that a man working for a slave running company such as the East Indies Company didn’t know the truth about free trade?
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