SMITH, Adam. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. London, A. Millar; Edinburgh, A. Kincaid and J. Bell, 1759.

8vo, pp. [vi], [viii], 550 [i.e. 530, pp. 317-336 omitted from pagination as usual], [1], with half-title and errata present; early ownership inscription to title, partly crossed out; some light foxing and browning, small ink stain to last 3 leaves; recently bound in full sprinkled calf, spine gilt in compartments, with gilt-lettered spine label.

First edition of Adam Smith's first book, the work that established his reputation as a philosopher not only in London but also on the Continent.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments is of the highest importance because of the way in which it supplements Smith's views on the nature of man and the way this world runs, as set out in the more familiar Wealth of Nations.  'One of Adam Smith's major claims to fame, in some ways his greatest, is his development of a unified concept of an economic system with mutually interdependent parts.

His development of this came well before the Wealth of Nations: it is in the Theory of Moral Sentiments of 1759 and the Lectures of 1762-3' (D.P. O'Brien, The Classical Economists, 1975, p. 29).

Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments is, in brief, that they are founded not, as Hume said, on self-interest, but on fellow-feeling - the ability one man has to put himself in the place of another, and to judge others by himself and himself by others. Smith's teleological view of the universe, expounded in the Moral Sentiments, permeates the Wealth, and perhaps the most famous example is to be found in the 'invisible hand' of the latter work. 'The exposition in the Wealth of Nations is much more particularized than that in the Moral Sentiments ... It occurs through the beneficial results of the pursuit of self-interest (within a framework of law and custom) and manifests itself in such phenomena as the division of labour (with its origin in the propensity to barter), money, savings and investment, and trade', ibid, p. 30. An understanding of Smith's views on the complex relationship between Sympathy and Self-interest is also to be gained from the study of both works.
Goldsmiths' 9537; Kress S 5815; Vanderblue p. 38.