ABSTRACT
adam smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments was published two hundred years ago. It brought him fame in his own day. But since then the book has been overshadowed by its successor, and is today read only by specialists, and by a few curious readers of the Wealth of Nations. It certainly deserves such study; for in it are to be found the fundamental doctrines of the Wealth of Nations, especially as to economic motive and natural liberty; and the famous work cannot be properly understood without some knowledge of the Theory. But the ethical work has also received the highest praise in its own right from some modern critics of weight; 1 so much so that the problem would seem to be why it has been so underestimated. The aim of this essay is to suggest by outlining its argument that this is undeserved; for the work develops an ethical theory of considerable subtlety and balance. First, however, some brief reasons for the undervaluation.
