Introduction [to New perspectives on Adam Smith's The theory of moral sentiments]

Abstract

Adam Smith’s remarkable book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, now deservedly coming to greater prominence, combines classical philosophy, early modern psychology and incisive observations of everyday life into a complex theory of human behaviour. New Perspectives on Adam Smith’s “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” is a comprehensive study of Smith’s ideas, reflecting the explosion of interest in his work. It brings together themes and methodologies from a variety of fields, including politics, sociology, intellectual history, history of science and evolutionary psychology. The contributions revolve around four themes: the ways in which Smith combined both classical and modern sources to create his own account of human economic and social behaviour; the insights gained from taking seriously the centrality of a benevolent deity to Smith’s system; Smith’s exploration of new forms of civility and self-formation, and the relationship between Smith’s moral philosophy and the emerging bodies of knowledge that were formalised in the nineteenth century as sociology and science. Economists and political economists have predominated in Adam Smith scholarship. This book looks at Smith’s ideas from a much broader set of disciplinary perspectives and as such will appeal to historians of economic, political and moral thought as well as Adam Smith scholars in particular and economists more generally