ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the link in Adam Smith's writing between markets and morality. In linking morality to markets, it reviews the literature in evolutionary psychology. The chapter investigates the developmental processes that are necessary to participate in markets in a moral way. The ability to delay immediate gratification is a building block of self-control and is correlated with measures of success and social adjustment. Evolutionary psychology provides a perspective on how morality develops in the context of human evolution. The development of morality from the perspective of evolutionary psychology is accomplished by examining the coevolution of personal/cultural innovations and genetics. Smith's writings look at how morality fosters markets and emphasizes as a part of that moral structure the need for justice. Delayed gratification developed through evolution and includes the use of adaptive defenses that enable an individual to participate in mutually cooperative market interactions.
