ABSTRACT
One feature of moral sentimentalism that made it appealing to moral philosophers in the Scottish Enlightenment is that it comports well with empirical, broadly naturalistic approaches to the world. The naturalistic cast of moral sentimentalism has indeed given it an enduring appeal to modern philosophers. Sentimentalism thus improves on its main naturalistic rival, utilitarianism. In allowing for the view that what makes an action good is simply the feelings motivating it, independent of its consequences, moral sentimentalism makes for a better fit with the way most of the people, in most societies, actually judge actions. And Smith’s version of sentimentalism, as the people will see, is particularly well suited to exploit this phenomenological point. Smith takes his most important contribution to the moral sentimentalism of Hutcheson and Hume to lie in his account of propriety.
