Smith Adam (1723–90), Scottish economist and philosopher, a founder of modern political economy and a major contributor to ethics and the psychology of morals. His first published work was The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759). This book immediately made him famous, and earned the praise of thinkers of the stature of Hume, Burke, and Kant. It sought to answer two questions: Wherein does virtue consist, and by means of what psychological principles do we determine this or that to be virtuous or the contrary? His answer to the first combined ancient Stoic and Aristotelian views of virtue with modern views derived from Hutcheson and others. His answer to the second built on Hume’s theory of sympathy – our ability to put ourselves imaginatively in the situation of another – as well as on the notion of the ‘impartial spectator.’ Smith throughout is skeptical about metaphysical and theological views of virtue and of the psychology of morals. The self-understanding of reasonable moral actors ought to serve as the moral philosopher’s guide. Smith’s discussion ranges from the motivation of wealth to the psychological causes of religious and political fanaticism.
Smith’s second published work, the immensely influential An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), attempts to explain why free economic, political, and religious markets are not only more efficient, when properly regulated, but also more in keeping with nature, more likely to win the approval of an impartial spectator, than monopolistic alternatives. Taken together, Smith’s two books attempt to show how virtue and liberty can complement each other. He shows full awareness of the potentially dehumanizing force of what was later called ‘capitalism,’ and sought remedies in schemes for liberal education and properly organized religion.
Smith did not live to complete his system, which was to include an analysis of ‘natural jurisprudence.’ We possess student notes of his lectures on jurisprudence and on rhetoric, as well as several impressive essays on the evolution of the history of science and on the fine arts.
See also HUME, IDEAL OBSERVER, LIBERAL – ISM , PHILOSOPHY OF ECONOMICS , SENTIMEN – TALISM , VIRTUE ETHIC. C.L.G.