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A review by livyyy
The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith
5.0
“How selfish soever man may be supposed,
there are evidently some principles in his nature,
which interest him in the fortune of others, and render
their happiness necessary to him, though he derives
nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it”
Squealing, kicking my feet, twirling my hair. Adam Smith is a genius!!
Okay first things first, I write these reviews for myself. I have a feeling this one will get lengthy and probably incoherent. I promise I’m a better writer than this.
FIRST, simply the fact that Smith was able to come up with so many incredibly insightful ideas in his time is just… wow. I mean people have won Nobel prizes for researching the stuff he just figured out through observation alone and without modern technology. Yes, the writing in this is CLEARLY of its time, but the content is so current and still talked about plenty today. So many of the conclusions he came to in the mid 1700s have been verified recently. Here are a few highlights:
- prospect theory and the over-weighting of loses
- attractiveness as “average”. The more a face is the average of all other faces, the more attractive we find it
- the concept of moral circles (okay which yeah, has its start in Greek philosophy, but he adds a lot of nuance which is ignored today!!)
- diminishing value of things the farther away in time they are
- a two system model of thinking. Passion/instinct vs. reason (as discussed in thinking fast and slow)
And this list barely scratches the surface of insights that made me grin uncontrollably and whisper to myself “so true Adam!!”
SO MANY of the themes and central questions of my favorite books are explored here. Self interest vs. interests of society (ethics of ambiguity), how psychology impacts market behavior (thinking fast and slow), public choice and morality as human nature (the idea of justice- which admittedly is hugely based off TMS)
This isn’t to say the book doesn’t have its flaws. For once, it’s pretty racist at times. And it’s racism isn’t central to its thesis nor much of a highlight at all, but it was unsettling to read for pages and pages. It’s also mildly misogynistic, and it’s not like it gets a pass for it’s issues being published in the 1700s, but it’s more understandable? It also calls children exclusively “it” which isn’t problematic, just something I thought was funny. Also, it’s so long. And for what. I love this book but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t in PAIN every time I picked it up. Reading philosophy is wanting to cry and pry your brain out all for those few seconds where something makes sense and you want to cry of joy.
I wonder where our world would be if TMS was as widely read as the wealth of nations. Would the Thatcherite era be as strong as it was? Would Smith be used less as a defendant for corrupt capitalism? I’ll have to return to this question once I read the wealth of nations. Genuinely after reading this book everything I’ve read before pales in comparison. It’s such an impressive and timeless exploration into human nature and morality.
As the legend of Margaret Thatcher goes that she carried the wealth of nations in her handbag, I will be that but with TMS.
there are evidently some principles in his nature,
which interest him in the fortune of others, and render
their happiness necessary to him, though he derives
nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it”
Squealing, kicking my feet, twirling my hair. Adam Smith is a genius!!
Okay first things first, I write these reviews for myself. I have a feeling this one will get lengthy and probably incoherent. I promise I’m a better writer than this.
FIRST, simply the fact that Smith was able to come up with so many incredibly insightful ideas in his time is just… wow. I mean people have won Nobel prizes for researching the stuff he just figured out through observation alone and without modern technology. Yes, the writing in this is CLEARLY of its time, but the content is so current and still talked about plenty today. So many of the conclusions he came to in the mid 1700s have been verified recently. Here are a few highlights:
- prospect theory and the over-weighting of loses
- attractiveness as “average”. The more a face is the average of all other faces, the more attractive we find it
- the concept of moral circles (okay which yeah, has its start in Greek philosophy, but he adds a lot of nuance which is ignored today!!)
- diminishing value of things the farther away in time they are
- a two system model of thinking. Passion/instinct vs. reason (as discussed in thinking fast and slow)
And this list barely scratches the surface of insights that made me grin uncontrollably and whisper to myself “so true Adam!!”
SO MANY of the themes and central questions of my favorite books are explored here. Self interest vs. interests of society (ethics of ambiguity), how psychology impacts market behavior (thinking fast and slow), public choice and morality as human nature (the idea of justice- which admittedly is hugely based off TMS)
This isn’t to say the book doesn’t have its flaws. For once, it’s pretty racist at times. And it’s racism isn’t central to its thesis nor much of a highlight at all, but it was unsettling to read for pages and pages. It’s also mildly misogynistic, and it’s not like it gets a pass for it’s issues being published in the 1700s, but it’s more understandable? It also calls children exclusively “it” which isn’t problematic, just something I thought was funny. Also, it’s so long. And for what. I love this book but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t in PAIN every time I picked it up. Reading philosophy is wanting to cry and pry your brain out all for those few seconds where something makes sense and you want to cry of joy.
I wonder where our world would be if TMS was as widely read as the wealth of nations. Would the Thatcherite era be as strong as it was? Would Smith be used less as a defendant for corrupt capitalism? I’ll have to return to this question once I read the wealth of nations. Genuinely after reading this book everything I’ve read before pales in comparison. It’s such an impressive and timeless exploration into human nature and morality.
As the legend of Margaret Thatcher goes that she carried the wealth of nations in her handbag, I will be that but with TMS.