Adam Smith's View of Human Sentiment and Conduct

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Economics - Macro-economics, general, grade: 1,0, University of St. Gallen, language: English, abstract: „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” is the first sentence of Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments. Despite Smith’s repeated emphasis on the importance of sympathy as a fundamental characteristic of human nature, Smith is often only associated with the idea that individuals are driven solely by their self-interest. The reason for this association is that self-interest seems to be the dominant motivator for human behaviour in Smith’s book The Wealth of Nations. As a result, Smith’s idea of man is often seen as a first draft of the self-interested homo oeconomicus used in modern economic analysis. This paper will explain Smith’s much more comprehensive view of human nature, analyse how the ethics and moral aspects of the TMS and the self-interest of the WN fit together and compare Smith’s idea of man to the concept of the homo oeconomicus in modern economics.