It really is a shame this book wasn't the cornerstone of economics instead of its more famous counterpart. While I truly appreciate the insights delivered in "Wealth of Nations" and have read sections of it countless times during my PhD studies, I find this book to be more informative of the type of economics I want to study. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in how individuals make decisions, as many of the insights "discovered" in behavioral economics actually came fr...

Remarkable. Smith's theory of an impartial spectator formulating our demand for fairness predates the categorical imperative and yet, Adam, the first, is under Kant's imposing shadow. Not fair. Perhaps because of the way economists (mistakenly) reduced his ideas in Wealth of Nations about human motivations as being attributable to self-interest alone. We're so much more.

If you’ve heard of Adam Smith, it’s probably because of his book The Wealth of Nations, which launched the study of economics, or his concept of “the invisible hand” by which individuals, each looking out only for their own personal gain, end up unwittingly contributing to the prosperity of society as a whole.I have not read The Wealth of Nations, but I’m currently reading Smith’s earlier book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments.When people argue about the application of moral values, usually implic...

This is a book of observations of how humans actually behave and what they aspire to be. I kept being surprised at how intuitive it was but how I had never thought about a lot of these ideas. Adam Smith digs into virtue, the four cardinal virtues, happiness, vice, and sentiments. One key idea was that we do and should align our behavior to an impartial spectator. What would this impartial spectator think of what I am about to do? I really enjoyed reading this book.

The "Theory of Moral Sentiments" is based on Smith's assertion that we are both social ("mutally sympathetic") and self-interested beings, and that social order must be based on these two fundamental classes of moral sentiments.On this foundation, Smith derives three virtues that promote social order. The first is propriety, which is self-command over the passions. This virtue is based on Smith's observation that, as individuals seek their own freedom, the freedom of one is not more important th...

Although I only rated it three stars, it is an important book to read. In this work, Smith lays out the feelings people have about themselves, one another, actions taken, etc., and how these feelings correspond to the morality of the things triggering the reactions. Smith starts all-of-a-sudden with no introduction, no explanation as to his intention or what he is trying to do, which seems rather abrupt. The book is mainly written based on his informed observations and speculations drawn therefr...

a difficult book to read, but I was inspired by a series of podcasts that Russell Roberts and Dan Klein (George Mason U) did in the summer of 2009. An idea in the book that I liked is that, counterintuivity, an "impartial spectator" is better company when you're downtrodden than a friend or relative. What you need is not necessarily sympathy but the ability to look at your situation as an impartial spectator would. In the company of strangers, our natural tendency is to bring our emotions down t...

I am not going to rate this becausea) My reading progress on this was spread too thin and was very stop start.And b) I can finally start The Wealth of Nations in full earnest and reading the two together may be more beneficial.

It took me 13 and 1/2 months to read this book. Published in 1754, it is turgid. It's like wading through mud. And every time I was about ready to put it down I stumbled across something insightful. This is the book Adam Smith wrote before he wrote The Wealth of Nations. From my point of view this is a prerequisite for understanding that tome.It has not been an enjoyable experience. And yet I am glad that I finally waded through it. My copy is underlined with copious notes in the margins. And as...

Though Adam Smith is regarded as the father of modern economics from the core of his heart he was a sound philosopher. He was a professor of moral philoshy and logic in Scotland. His most of the economic ideas are derived from the method of introspection. The theory of moral sentiment brought him into the limelight in the 1760s. This one is the finest treatise on moral philosophy and sentiments.

Along with On The Wealth of Nations, I re-read this every couple of years. It is Smith's predecessor and guide book to the ideas in On The Wealth of Nations. It is the moral underpinning that needs to be present for a capitalist nation not to become a nation of exploitative, money hungry, soulless power mongers using people as economic ends to gain superiority by an over-valuing of wealth. Alas, we did not take heed.

I'm glad to be finished! Yeah! The reason, however, I must confess, is that I didn't find Smith's work all that engaging. He discusses virtues in the greater context of social order, nobly promoting self-command, admiring the Stoics, and prudence. I liked a few things very much, for example, when he speaks of the Stoic's outlook on danger (pg 329). I also liked what he said (pg 209) when thinking of Hume, "an ingenious and agreeable philosopher, who joins the greater depth of thought to the grea...

Adam Smith is usually remembered for his works on political economy as layed out in his An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). And even then, most experts and laymen approach this one-sided version of Smith in a myopic view. In general, this picture of Smith is summed up as: “human beings are driven primarily by selflove and rationally pursue their self-interest. Happiness consists in the fulfilment of this pursuit, and is best accommodated by an absolute free exc...

I thought this book was exceedingly great. I enjoyed everything within it very well indeed. It is only a matter of sitting down and concretely analyzing ethics scientifically and then you will be able to see the perspective from Adam Smith's point of view. My edition (the penguin classics) also included a writing by Adam Smith on the formation of languages that I much enjoyed as well. I would recommend this to anyone just trying to get into Adam Smith or moral philosophy in general. Five stars.

Reading Adam Smith, like Hume or Gibbon, takes you into a century where the prose styles were more classical than today. I was fortunate to study Latin in high school, but Smith had Greek and Latin studies from an early age. His references to Aristotle, Plato, the Stoics and Cicero are central to his work. But his immediate predecessor was Francis Hutcheson of the University of Glasgow, who divided moral philosophy into four parts: Ethics and Virtue; Private rights and Natural liberty; Familial

This book is not easy to read. At times the book is tedious and somewhat difficult to understand. It is long and it sometimes seems wordy. That said, it contains some of the best prose in philosophy, and the numerous insights are incredible.Most people have heard the common defense of capitalism in the Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: "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." They assume Smith...

Introduction & NotesSuggestions for Further ReadingA Note on the Text--The Theory of Moral Sentiments--Considerations concerning the first formation of languagesBiographical NotesTextual NotesIndex

I once used to read philosphical works a lot. Back then, I came across someone saying it is a young man's game and thought that it was a snobbish comment. However my own love for philosophy dried out very quickly, I still maintain that to call it a young man's game is snobbish.Russell defends the supposed uselessness of philosophy on grounds that when a part of it becomes useful, it takes form of some other science. Aristotle has been called father of sciences. While Adam Smith and Sigmeund Freu...

So, there's a lot of good and very little bad with this book. Adam Smith, the same Adam Smith that practically every Capitalist apologist uses as his go-to man to prop up Capitalism also wrote a bonafide philosophy book that runs the entire gamut of morality, ethics, and how people mistake their perceptions of the good for what actually IS good.This is ironic, considering how many ways the fundamental idea of Capitalism (and not the bastardized and totally gamed version we have now) is considere...

Probably the most mind-blowing book I read when I was an undergrad and one of the few that I find myself going back to again and again. Smith does for morality what Darwin did to biodiversity - took a phenomenon widely assumed to have been bluntly imposed from above and showed it to be rather something that naturally emerges from the interaction of individuals endowed with certain properties (in this case, instincts both for self-preservation and empathy/sympathy). I finished with an exciting wa...