Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments

Introduction

The Theory of Moral Sentiments begins with the following observation which largely sets the tenor of the book. Smith, far from depending on the depersonalized and egocentric “invisible hand” to explain human social and economic action, was fully aware of the more altruistic aspect of human nature in the form sympathy for others:

How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortunes 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 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 sorrows 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 or the...