Introduction

In Autumn 1982 I attended a seminar on Adam Smith that changed the direction of my intellectual life. The late Robert Heilbroner presided over the seminar, which took place at the Graduate Faculty of what was then called the New School for Social Research. In the seminar, I discovered Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS 1976a). I also discovered other important themes in Smith’s Wealth of Nations (WN 1976b) and in Smith’s other works. But it was TMS that has made, and is still making, deep contours in my thoughts.