By understanding our shared interests we can live and work and collaborate together for the mutual benefit of us all, both in economics and in life in general.Lecture 8 - Smith: The Invisible Hand Overview By sharing the feelings of others, we can foster understanding between individuals and groups and create a more peaceful humanity. Through self-reflection, we can make better moral choices. Smith’s approach is just as relevant today as it was in 1759. His idea that self-interested actions-wanting to be liked by others, or exchanging things we value less for others’ things we value more-had a profound effect on the rise of liberal thought. It is no exaggeration to say that TMS laid the foundations for the subsequent development of psychology, sociology and economics, helping establish them as distinct subjects of scientific enquiry. But it also provides a guide on how we can cultivate our morality, emphasising the importance of self-reflection and self-improvement. ![]() It examines how people actually make moral choices, and the pressures on them to do so. ![]() TMS is primarily a descriptive account of human moral action. All of which leads us, as if drawn by an invisible hand, to create a harmonious social order. Every choice we have to make helps us see that standard more clearly and act according to it more consistently. Even if there is no one else around to see our actions, we are still impelled to act honestly, as if an ‘impartial spectator’ is judging us at all time, setting the standard by which we judge ourselves and others. We want others to like us, and we strive to act so that they do. By nature we understand, and even share the feelings of others. TMS argues that morality is rooted deeply in human psychology, especially the empathy we have for our fellow humans. New thinkers, like Francis Hutcheson and David Hume, were role models for Smith’s intellectual radicalism. Old hierarchies were breaking down, with industrialisation replacing Scotland’s old feudal lifestyles, and with religious pluralism, leading to a more active debate on morals and virtues. This scientific approach was very much in line with the Scottish Enlightenment, which stemmed in part from the exchange of ideas between Scotland and England following the 1707 Act of Union, and sought to apply observation and scientific method to the study of humankind. It was a matter of psychology: how we form judgements about ourselves and others, and the influence of customs, norms and culture upon those judgements. ![]() Smith maintained that by observing ourselves and others, we could discern the principles of ethical behaviour. This replaced speculative thinking by scientific method. Smith, by contrast, argued that morality stemmed from our human nature as social beings, and our natural empathy for others. Ethics had until then been widely assumed to be based on God’s will, or the clerics’ interpretation of it or something that could be deduced through abstract reason or even something that could be felt through some ‘moral sense’ like touch or vision. Like The Wealth of Nations, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) was a complete break from the thinking of the time. Indeed, it was The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) that made him famous. ![]() But Smith’s ethical thinking was no less profound. In this 300th year after the birth of Adam Smith, much of the focus has been on Smith’s economics, as recorded in The Wealth of Nations (1776).
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