THE POINT BEING THAT THE OBSERVER ISN'T ACTUALLY "OBJECTIVE":

The impartial spectator, as Smith de­scribes him, occupies a perspective we today might call "objective." To reach it, we have to separate ourselves from our private concerns and learn to see the world free of the distorting lens of our self-interest. The result is a clear-eyed view, one that enables us to take in all the facts and see matters as they really are.

This of course is no easy task. Adam Smith knew as well as anyone that we are attached to our interests. So why did he think it was so important for us to do this? His concern was simple: A society of free and self-interested individuals cannot function if they are unable to appreciate the interests and rights of others. The result of such a failure could only be an unsustainable society of selfishness -- precisely the anarchic state of nature that Smith, like other theorists of liberalism, sought to overcome.

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