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Adam Smith

The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Dover Philosophical Classics) Paperback – December 1, 2006

by Adam Smith (Author)

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Part of: Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy (77 books)

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The foundation for a general system of morals, this 1749 work is a landmark in the history of moral and political thought. Readers familiar with Adam Smith from The Wealth of Nations will find this earlier book a revelation. Although the author is often misrepresented as a calculating rationalist who advises the pursuit of self-interest in the marketplace, regardless of the human cost, he was also interested in the human capacity for benevolence — as The Theory of Moral Sentiments amply demonstrates.
The greatest prudence, Smith suggests, may lie in following economic self-interest in order to secure the basic necessities. This is only the first step, however, toward the much higher goal of achieving a morally virtuous life. Smith elaborates upon a theory of the imagination inspired by the philosophy of David Hume. His reasoning takes Hume's logic a step further by proposing a more sophisticated notion of sympathy, leading to a series of highly original theories involving conscience, moral judgment, and virtue.
Smith's legacy consists of his reconstruction of the Enlightenment idea of a moral, or social, science that embraces both political economy and the theory of law and government. His articulate expression of his philosophy continues to inspire and challenge modern readers.

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368 pages
Language

English
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Dover Publications
Publication date

December 1, 2006
Dimensions

6.38 x 0.75 x 8.26 inches
ISBN-10

0486452913
ISBN-13

978-0486452913
Lexile measure

1570L
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dover Publications; Reprint edition (December 1, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0486452913
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0486452913
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1570L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 0.75 x 8.26 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,112,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,868 in Social Philosophy
- #12,568 in Philosophy of Ethics & Morality

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Knud Haakonssen
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Adam Smith
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Adam Smith (16 June 1723 NS (5 June 1723 OS) – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher, pioneer of political economy, and a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.
Smith is best known for two classic works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Smith is cited as the father of modern economics and is still among the most influential thinkers in the field of economics today.
Smith studied social philosophy at the University of Glasgow and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was one of the first students to benefit from scholarships set up by fellow Scot, John Snell. After graduating, he delivered a successful series of public lectures at Edinburgh, leading him to collaborate with David Hume during the Scottish Enlightenment. Smith obtained a professorship at Glasgow teaching moral philosophy, and during this time he wrote and published The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In his later life, he took a tutoring position that allowed him to travel throughout Europe, where he met other intellectual leaders of his day.
Smith laid the foundations of classical free market economic theory. The Wealth of Nations was a precursor to the modern academic discipline of economics. In this and other works, he expounded upon how rational self-interest and competition can lead to economic prosperity. Smith was controversial in his own day and his general approach and writing style were often satirised by Tory writers in the moralising tradition of William Hogarth and Jonathan Swift. In 2005, The Wealth of Nations was named among the 100 Best Scottish Books of all time. The minor planet 12838 Adamsmith was named in his memory.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by unknown artist [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
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A. L. Macfie
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CST

A must read for any scholar or lover of knowledge.

Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2019

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My review will be on the penguin classics edition of The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith. First of all I’d like to begin with the fact that this book can be interpreted as one of the best self help books ever written(find out). Smith gives many examples of other philosophical theories of ethics and then draws his conclusions at the end of his review of them. This was Smith’s favorite work even though most of us know him because of the wealth of nations, if one would like to understand the wealth of nations accurately you would first have to read this treatise. Many on the left hate him and many on the right praise him, this is not a proof of any great truth about Smith’s thought, its only a proof of how uninformed our political discourse and politicians have become. Smith proves himself to be practical, understanding, and a systematic thinker. He’s not a “classical liberal” a “right winger” a “socialist” or even a leave alone capitalist. He’s none of those, he’s a thinker and that’s it. He despised factions and greed. I encourage anyone to read this book that can serve as a self help book or as the first part of the wealth of nations. Smith considered this as part of the wealth of nations as “one part of a whole”.

21 people found this helpful

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C. Adams

just the first section in a nice binding. If you want the entire text

Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2016

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This publication is misleading: not what it is advertised to be...this is only a small part of the entire text by Adam Smith, in fact, just the first section in a nice binding. If you want the entire text, don't buy this rip-off; go on line and print out the entire text content free. I thought a nice bound copy oif this out of print classic work would be nice. Instead, I paid for only 56 pages of a 400+ page work. This product should be a great embarrassment to AMAZON for facilitating its false marketing and distribution.

74 people found this helpful

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Anders Martinson

The Kindle version is complete and well-structured

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2021

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Kindle readers can ignore the one-star reviews of the print edition. This is a full edition of the work. There's no need to review the work itself here, because that's already been handled, so the review is of the edition itself. When purchasing public domain Kindle titles you'll want to look for things like X-ray and other features that make Kindle editions useful.

Unlike other edition of this work, the edition comes with X-ray. A slight disappointment is that the dropdown table of contents does not list the chapter or section names, so you have to rely on the listing on the title of contents page at the front of the book, but that's easy enough to do.

This is another great value in the collection of Kindle public domain works, and it's well worth picking up for those interested in the content.

5 people found this helpful

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A Brief Preface to the Theory of Moral Sentiments

Reviewed in the United States on May 24, 2021

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The Theory of Moral Sentiments is read far less often than the The Wealth of Nations. After reading it I can see why. It’s a difficult text; not only full of tangents, it surveys different topics in ethics non-systemically. It’s even difficult to fully suss out the core of what Smith holds about morality.

As I see it, Moral Sentiments is the natural complement to Smith’s more noted work. While the Wealth of Nations traces the flow of labor, capital and wealth through the nascent market economy, Moral Sentiments describes the virtues, vices, character and necessary behavior of mankind in the newly founded state of freedom.

Just as the workings of the market economy needed a fresh treatment from the feudal understandings of the Middle Ages, so newly democratic man, endowed with certain capabilities by nature, needed a guide beyond the God/sin motifs of the Middle Ages.

At least that is how I read the overall goal of the Theory of Moral Sentiments. A foundational text in the Enlightenment school of Locke, Hobbes and Hume. Written with only the benefit of a classical education and the anthropology of indigenous peoples, Smith may not have said the last word on ethics, but it’s hard to imagine modernity without it. Highly recommended to all interested in the history of Western civilization.

4 people found this helpful

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J. Rogelio

Where it started all

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2013

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By Adam Smith, this book is an intent to axiomatize the human behavior. Trying to answer the question: Why we act how we act, is the main topic of the book. I think what Isaac Newton did to Physics, Adam Smith wanted to find the axioms that would lay the foundations of Economics as a social science. In words of Robert J. Shiller (more or less), 'this book will help you understand the current crisis we're living.' Enjoy it!

4 people found this helpful

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HandyGuy

Kessinger edition contains about 10% of the actual book

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2015

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As so many people say "How can I give it zero stars?"

Note that this is a review of the "Kessinger Publishing, LLC" product and NOT a review of Smith's original work.

The Kessinger "book" is a bad reprint of a couple of chapters of Smith's entire "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" and runs less than their stated 60 pages.

For half the price, you can get a brand new complete printed copy (running several hundred pages) or get the whole thing on Kindle for 99 cents.

Kessinger's description that talks about "our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work" is laughable and insulting.

Their market surely must be people who don't know any better. And surely the positive reviewers received a completely different edition from another publisher!

Please remove this edition from Amazon.

50 people found this helpful

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tjam

book is fine size is off

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2020

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the size is awkward to hold and there are too many words on a page so I ordered a smaller one, more pages so it’s thicker, b not so big.

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Lark

Master piece of pure eloquence

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 18, 2016

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What an excellent example of eloquent writing this book is, besides its suppositions and content this book is just a complete and utter pleasure to read for anyone who truly appreciates a good wordsmith and Smith really is one.

From the opening chapters which describe his theory that via the medium of imagination individuals do comprehend others being, enjoy mutual sympathies etc. through all the chapters introducing ideas or thought experiments much appreciated by later liberals and philosophers such as the impartial observer, ideas about character, deep praise of stoicism, detachment and fortune to its finish I enjoyed all of this and would highly recommend it.

I have not read the wealth of nations to know how it compliments the more famous work but regret that this is not more well known, my favourite chapters include those upon beauty and utility, while he does not mention utilitarian philosophers directly he does heap praise upon the philosophy and considers things beautiful which have the quality of utility. There are some great reflections in this part of the book about wealth and fortune and why those without envy those with means but also the ill fated destiny of many who suddenly, or even through hard graft and time, discover to themselves some means, with increased means the demands for further increased means being a big factor. Some of the musings about the accumulation of possessions, using examples of "tweezer boxes" or novelty trinkets of the time which sound something like swiss army knives,are pretty perennial (along with many others besides) and like later day criticisms of consumerism, hoarding types and Erich Fromm's "To Have or To Be?" idea, although only a footnote to other ideas and therefore a lot shorter.

Overall this book impressed upon me someone with a great love of humanity, of a certain sort of literary humanism, without magnifying what it is to be human and experience the human condition to the point were it eclipses all else but a happy, humble, appreciative and reflective mode of being. Smith thought carefully, reflected a lot and enjoyed writing about it in a manner which allows the reader to enter into his experience readily and relate to it easily. Of this I am certain that reading this really enriched my life, understanding and thinking. Recommended.

9 people found this helpful

Carrick

A4 soft format

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is an A4 glued spine notebook format, 174 page edition, without preface or index. Back cover has a brief large print summary. Text is standard font narrow margins on good white paper.

Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' is well known and still widely read by MBA/ Economics students (and interested historians). Without reading this book, published 15 years earlier, it is possible to get quite the wrong idea about the basis of economics, and indeed this economist. Modern liberal Economics is clearer for having this foundation.

Basic edition. Good value.

McManus

Beyond ordinary praise

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 24, 2018

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The introduction as well as the book itself are both excellent and essential reading for anyone wanting to combat that ugly interpretations that have been pushed on Smith as the apostle of selfishness. Nothing could be further from the truth for this man who would have excoriated the thieves and swindlers of 2008 and held the institute that purports to honour his name in contempt. As readable as Tom Jones, published around the same time. A delight on every page.

3 people found this helpful

G Pelloni

It is indispensable reading for anybody who would like to understand Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" and the ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2015

Verified Purchase

The TMS is one of the masterpieces of modern Political Sciences ( and of Moral Philosophy). It is indispensable reading for anybody who would like to understand Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations" and the proper roots of modern capitalism. The Galsgow Edition is mandatory. The Introduction by D.D. Raphael and AL. Macfie is splendid and an example of profound and solid scholarship.

One person found this helpful

Malhaar

Avoid, doesn't even have all of the first section of the book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is embarrassingly expensive for fewer than 50 pages of text. I shall be returning it and searching for a copy that is unabridged. There is no indication of any of this on the store page. This review is for the Kessinger reprint edition - reprint of the first chapter, that is...

2 people found this helpful

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