ABSTRACT

Adam Smith calls self-deceit ‘the source of half the disorders of human life’ (TMS III.4.6, 158). The remark has a hyperbolic quality, but Smith's great concern with seeing our selves correctly – as an impartial spectator would see us – suggests that he may have meant it literally. I propose to read it that way, to use it as a clue to Smith's moral philosophy as a whole. In particular, I will argue that Smith's entire account of the self can be understood as starting from the need, for moral purposes, to make sense of self-deception.