WORK
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Smith's 1759 treatise on moral psychology — the book he considered his more important work, and the foundation without which The Wealth of Nations cannot be properly understood.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) is Smith's first book and, by his own assessment, his more important work. He revised it through six editions across his life, the last appearing in 1790 just months before his death — by which time The Wealth of Nations had been in print for fourteen years and had largely eclipsed its predecessor in public attention. The eclipse was a misfortune for the history of economics. Smith never separated moral psychology from political economy. The market that his later book describes operates within a moral culture whose architecture the earlier book explores.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The book develops Smith's theory of sympathy, the impartial spectator, and the cultivation of moral judgment through social experience. It argues that moral life is grounded not in reason alone but in the human capacity to enter imaginatively into the situations of others — a capacity that is cultivated through experience and that can be