ABSTRACT
In 2016 the History of Economics Society (HES), by means of its program ‘HES Call for Funds’, selected and financed my project From Scotland to the South of Mediterranean: The Thought of Adam Smith through Europe and beyond. Richard van den Berg shows us the uncertain and controversial reception that Theory of Moral Sentiments received in France of the late eighteenth century. A circumstance explained through the difficulty of French scholars to understand and accept the Scottish anthropological view of man founded on sentiments and so very distant from the continental rationalism typical of France at that time. Rizzo analyses the ethical explanation of justice in the Theory of Moral Sentiments, which is founded on mechanism of approbation and resentment felt by the impartial spectator. This is a theory of justice which stands out for anti-rationalism and anti-utilitarianism and shows some problematic aspects for what concerns the determination of the strictness as well as defence of property and contract rights.
