Philosopher
Last reviewed:
1723–1790 · Moral philosophy · Enlightenment
Adam Smith, born in Kirkcaldy in 1723, died in 1790, was a moral philosopher before he was the author of a famous economics. The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759, opens by denying that selfishness is the whole of human nature. Sympathy interests us in other people's fortunes even when we gain nothing but the pleasure of seeing their happiness.
Conscience, on his account, is the effort to become the impartial spectator of one's own conduct, a compression this library marks as a paraphrase of a longer argument. The Wealth of Nations, 1776, explains dinner by the butcher's interest rather than by the butcher's benevolence, and it traces the greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour to the division of labour, illustrated by pins and later shadowed by the mental costs of repetitive work.
The two books are panels, not a retraction. He taught in Glasgow, knew Hume, and wrote in an English that is secure. Quoting the butcher against the opening page of the moral book, or the opening page against the butcher, is how the myth of a split Smith gets built.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments, the first page, then Wealth of Nations, book 1, chapters 1 and 2
That order makes the butcher intelligible. Reversing it produces the myth.
“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.”
Adam Smith · Moral philosophy
“We must become the impartial spectators of our own character and conduct.”
Adam Smith · Moral philosophy
“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”
Adam Smith · Moral philosophy
“The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour seems to have been the effects of the division of labour.”
Adam Smith · Moral philosophy
“Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love.”
Adam Smith · Moral philosophy
Sympathy
We are built to care about others' fortunes, and that interest is real even when no further profit follows.
Impartial spectator
Moral judgement of oneself requires an imagined fair observer, not the mere voice of the nearby crowd.
Division of labour
Productive power grows by dividing tasks, and the same book later counts the human cost of that division.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759, revised until 1790)
Sympathy and the spectator. The opening sentence is the surest correction of the selfishness myth.
The Wealth of Nations (1776)
Book 1, chapters 1 and 2, hold the pins and the butcher. Later chapters complicate the praise.
None of the lines this library files for Adam Smith is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments, the first page, then Wealth of Nations, book 1, chapters 1 and 2 That order makes the butcher intelligible. Reversing it produces the myth.
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Adam Smith that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “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.” (The Theory of Moral Sentiments I.i.1.1, Well attested).
None of the lines this library files for Adam Smith is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
Sympathy: We are built to care about others' fortunes, and that interest is real even when no further profit follows.