To truly understand Adam Smith's economic masterpiece "The Wealth of Nations", one must understand its moral foundation. Without Smith's essential prequel, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", the more famous "Wealth of Nations" can easily be misunderstood, twisted, or dismissed. Smith rightly lays the premise of his economics in a seedbed of moral philosophy -- the rights and wrongs, the whys and why-nots of human conduct. Smith's capitalism is far from a callous, insensitive, greed-motivated, love-of-profits-at-any-cost ...
Read More
To truly understand Adam Smith's economic masterpiece "The Wealth of Nations", one must understand its moral foundation. Without Smith's essential prequel, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", the more famous "Wealth of Nations" can easily be misunderstood, twisted, or dismissed. Smith rightly lays the premise of his economics in a seedbed of moral philosophy -- the rights and wrongs, the whys and why-nots of human conduct. Smith's capitalism is far from a callous, insensitive, greed-motivated, love-of-profits-at-any-cost approach to the marketplace, when seen in the context of his "Moral Sentiments." Smith's first section deals with the "Propriety of Action". The very first chapter of the book is entitled "Of Sympathy". This is very telling of Smith's view of life, and his approach to how men should conduct their lives. This propriety of conduct undergirds all social, political and economic activities, private and public. Smith treats the passions of men with clinical precision, identifying a gamut of passions like selfishness, ambition and the distinction of ranks, vanity, intimidation, drawing examples from history and various schools of philosophy. He extols such quiet virtues as politeness, modesty and plainness, probity and prudence, generosity and frankness -- certainly not the qualities of the stereotypical cartoon of a capitalist robber-baron. With such salient observations Smith embarks in a survey of vices to avoid and passions to govern. He describes virtues to cultivate in order to master one's self as well as the power of wealth. These include courage, duty, benevolence, propriety, prudence and self-respect. He develops a powerful doctrine of "moral duty" based upon "the rules of justice", "the rules of chastity", and "the rules of veracity" that decries cowardice, treachery, and falsity. This book is a vital component to any reading of "The Wealth of Nations". "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" is the life-blood or soul of "The Wealth of Nations". Without "Moral Sentiments" one is left with an empty, even soulless, economic theory that can be construed as greedy and grasping no matter how much wealth may be acquired.
Read Less
Add this copy of The Theory of Moral Sentiments to cart. $41.55, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2013 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
While the current laissez-faire capitalists hold up Adam Smith as their model, the real Adam Smith was first and foremost a teacher of moral philosophy in his native Scotland. Read his ideas on natural and desirable human virtues such as sympathy. Contrast that with the real author of our current form of capitalism, Ayn Rand, who declared compassion a vice. Compare Smith's ideas on moral duties with Rand's derision of "do-gooders," as her followers call those who use their education to help others. Compare Smith's altruistic concern for the human condition and how to better the economic condition of all free people by concentrating on lifting ourselves out of miserable economic conditions and fostering the cooperation and peace needed for capitalism instead of devoting our lives to the constant European religious wars with which Smith was so familiar.
This book will give you the necessary insight into the vision of the future author of the Wealth of Nations and the world he hoped to foster. Contrast that with the highly SOLE and separate self-interest of Ayn Rand and you will begin to see how dangerous philosophies can be when their ideas are usurped by those who do not understand the philosophy or change it into something Smith would not recognize and I believe would find abhorrent, based on the ideas he presented in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Rand was scarred by almost dying in her flight from totalitarian communism and naturally reacted to government as "the enemy."
It is ironic that those who hold government to be their natural enemy think they are following Adam Smith, who was a government bureaucrat and believed government naturally provided some necessary services for the people that smaller fragmented entities could not provide or provide as efficiently! A must read for those interested but perhaps bewildered by their own economic condition and the conflicting moral messages sent by Smith vs. Rand.