The Theory of Moral Sentiments & Adam Smith's View of Morality
Many people are familiar with Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (WoN), But Smith’s ethical thinking was just as important. In fact, it was TheTheory of Moral Sentiments (TMS), published 27 years earlier, on 12 April , that made him famous.
Just The Wealth of Nations, this book marked a complete break from the thinking of the time. Ethics had until then been widely assumed to be based on God’s will (or the clerics’ interpretation of it); or something that could be deduced through abstract reason; or even something that could be felt through some ‘moral sense’ like touch or vision.
Replacing this speculative thinking by scientific method, Smith argued instead that morality stemmed from our human nature as social beings, and our natural empathy for others. By observing ourselves and others, he said, we could discover the principles of ethical behaviour. Ethics was a matter of human psychology, stemming from how we form judgements about ourselves and others, and the influence of customs, norms and culture upon it.
This scientific approach to ethics was a sensation. It was very much in line with
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Effectively laying the groundwork for his later work in economics, Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments sets forth a theory of how we come to be moral, of how this morality functions on both individual and societal levels, and of what forces are likely to corrupt our sense of morality.
The main point that Smith makes is that our sense of morality is derived from our capacity to sympathize directly and indirectly with other people. We wish both to be praised and to be worthy of this praise, as well as to avoid both blame and blame-worthiness. On account of these interests, we must learn to temper our reactions to other people, as well as our reactions to fortune: we are naturally more interested in our own affairs than anyone else is. Our actions are liable to become overblown and unacceptable unless we temper our egos and see ourselves in the same light in which society at large sees us. Fortunately, we are able to achieve this moral perspective because of our consciences, which allow us to envision our own actions just as a disinterested observer might.
As
Recommended edition: Smith, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Edited by D. D. Raphael and A. L. Macfie. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press,
Excerpt:
How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it. Of this kind is pity or compassion, the emotion which we feel for the misery of others, when we either see it, or are made to conceive it in a very lively manner. That we often derive sorrow from the sorrow of others, is a matter of fact too obvious to require any instances to prove it; for this sentiment, like all the other original passions of human nature, is by no means confined to the virtuous and humane, though they perhaps may feel it with the most exquisite sensibility. The greatest ruffian, the most hardened violator of the laws of society, is not altogether without it.
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The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
Or, an Essay Towards an Analysis of the Principles by Which Men Naturally Judge Concerning the Conduct and Character, First of Their Neighbours, and Afterwards of Themselves. to Which Is Added, a Dissertation on the Origin of Languages.
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