Theory of Moral Sentiments by Adam Smith, First Edition (15 results)

Softcover. Condition: Near Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: N/A. 1st Edition. First edition thus, later printing. 414pp. Laminated light card covers. 8vo. Gentle edge wear to card covers else neat, clean, bright and tight throughout.

Soft cover. Condition: New. 1st Edition. In original shrink-wrap, pristine and immaculate.

Hardcover. Condition: Like New. First Edition. First Edition, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Regnery Publishing, 2001. Octavo. Hardcover. Book is like new. Dust jacket is like new.100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.

Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Adam Smith's major work of 1759 develops the foundation for a general system of morals, and is a text of central importance in the history of moral and political thought. Through the idea of sympathy and the mental construct of an impartial spectator, Smith formulated highly original theories of conscience, moral judgment and the virtues. This volume offers a new edition of the text with helpful notes for the student reader, and a substantial introduction that establishes the work in its philosophical and historical context. Adam Smith's major work of 1759 develops the foundation for a general system of morals, and is a text of central importance in the history of moral and political thought. Through the idea of sympathy and the mental construct of an impartial spectator, Smith formulated highly original theories of conscience, moral judgment and the virtues. This volume offers a new edition of the text with helpful notes for the student reader, and a substantial introduction that establishes the work in its philosophical and historical context. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. First Edition Thus, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Arlington House, 1969. Octavo. Hardcover. Book is very good with very light spotting to the top page ends. Dust jacket is very good with a small tear to the spine and front top edge.100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.

Hardcover. Condition: new. Hardcover. Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) lays the foundation for a general system of morals, and is a text of central importance in the history of moral and political thought. It presents a theory of the imagination which Smith derived from David Hume but which encompasses an idea of sympathy that in some ways is more sophisticated than anything in Hume's philosophy. By means of sympathy and the mental construct of an impartial spectator, Smith formulated highly original theories of conscience, moral judgment and the virtues. The enduring legacy of his work is its reconstruction of the Enlightenment idea of a moral, or social, science encompassing both political economy and the theory of law and government. This volume offers a new edition of the text with clear and helpful notes for the student reader, together with a substantial introduction that sets the work in its philosophical and historical context. A new edition of an important text in the history of moral and political thought. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability.

Hardcover. First Edition; First Printing. Very Good in a Very Good+ dust jacket. Owner bookplate on FEP.

First Edition. Thick 8vo, 202 x 123 mm., bound in its original contemporary binding of full calf, neatly and very sympathetically and skillfully restored at the back with the original spine panel laid down (preserving all but c. 2cm at the foot, a nearly invisible sophistication, the original morocco label replaced, free endleaves renewed sympathetically with antique paper. [xii], 551, [1] errata (uncorrected in the text, with an error: 412 should read 413); pp. 317-336 omitted from pagination as usual; complete with the half-title pp. A very handsome copy, crisp and unpressed, clean throughout, the binding strong and in good order, the occasional spot as to be expected, but truly a pleasing copy of this monumental work. THE ESPECIALLY RARE FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL CONTEMPORARY BINDING OF ADAM SMITH'S FIRST BOOK, PUBLISHED IN 1759. A TRULY RARE BOOK AND ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WORKS IN ALL OF ENGLISH PHILOSOPHY. 'THE THEORY OF MORAL SENTIMENTS was a true scientific breakthrough. It shows that our moral ideas and actions are a product of our very nature as social creatures. It argues that this social psychology is a better guide to moral action than is reason. It identifies the basic rules of prudence and justice that are needed for society to survive, and explains the additional, beneficent, actions that enable it to flourish. As individuals, we have a natural tendency to look after ourselves. That is merely prudence. And yet as social creatures, explains Smith, we are also endowed with a natural sympathy today we would say empathy towards others. When we see others distressed or happy, we feel for them albeit less strongly. Likewise, others seek our empathy and feel for us. When their feelings are particularly strong, empathy prompts them to restrain their emotions so as to bring them into line with our, less intense reactions. Gradually, as we grow from childhood to adulthood, we each learn what is and is not acceptable to other people. Morality stems from our social nature. So does justice. Though we are self-interested, we again have to work out how to live alongside others without doing them harm. That is an essential minimum for the survival of society. If people go further and do positive good beneficence we welcome it, but cannot demand such action as we demand justice.Virtue. Prudence, justice, and beneficence are important. However, the ideal must be that any impartial person, real or imaginary what Smith calls an impartial spectator would fully empathize with our emotions and actions. That requires self-command, and in this lies true virtue. Morality, says Smith, is not something we have to calculate. It is natural, built into us as social beings. When we see people happy or sad, we feel happy or sad too. We derive pleasure when people do things we approve of, and distress when we believe they are doing harm. Of course, we do not feel others' emotions as strongly as they do. And through our natural empathy with others, we learn that an excess of anger, or grief, or other emotions distresses them. So we try to curb our emotions to bring them into line with those of others. In fact, we aim to temper them to the point where any typical, disinterested person an impartial spectator, says Smith would empathise with us. Likewise, when we show concern for other people, we know that an impartial spectator would approve, and we take pleasure from it. The impartial spectator is only imaginary, but still guides us: and through experience we gradually build up a system of behavioural rules morality. Punishments and rewards have an important social function. We approve and reward acts that benefit society, and disapprove and punish acts that harm it. Nature has equipped us with appetites and aversions that promote the continued existence of our species and our society. It is almost as if an invisible hand were guiding what we do. For society to survive, there must be rules to present its individual members.

First edition in Russian of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, very rare. This landmark translation (it is still the one used in Russia today) was made by Pavel Bibikov, who had brought out a translation of the Wealth of Nations (the edition read by Lenin) two years before. Both were published as part of his series the Library of Classical European Writers. "Bibikov [1831-1875] already had a reputation as a historian, philosopher, and literary critic, and this undoubtedly had a part in the generally high level of presentation of the translations" (Artemieva, p. 160). The translations were probably made via French, but whereas Bibikov's Wealth of Nations was superceded by the end of the century, his Theory of Moral Sentiments remained the only Russian version available until 1997. Tatiana V. Artemieva, "Adam Smith in Russian translation", A Critical Bibliography of Adam Smith, ed. Keith Tribe (2002), pp. 153-167. Tribe 186; Vanderblue, p. 42 (but not in the collection). OCLC locates copies at National Library of Scotland, Yale, Illinois, and the National Library of Israel only. Not in the British Library. Octavo (207 x 138 mm), pp. [2], [5]-515 + 4pp. contents and advertisement leaf, complete. Recently bound in quarter marbled calf and pebble grain cloth, vellum tips, spine ruled gilt, black morocco label. First and last leaves a little darkened, short chip to upper margin of title, small stain to final few leaves and last leaf strengthened in the gutter; a very good copy.

First edition in Russian. 8vo. 515, [1, blank], iv [contents], [2, publisher's advertisements] pp. With the half title. Recent quarter brown morocco with marbled paper covered boards, spine lettered in gilt on black morocco label, marbled edges (faint dampstain to lower corner of text block, otherwise internally clean, a very good copy). St Petersburg, I. I. Glazunov.  The first Russian translation of Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments, originally published in Edinburgh in 1759, his first book and most thoroughly philosophical work, providing the first expression of many of the ideas contained in the Wealth of Nations, with which it shares "a great unifying principle. Smith?s ethics and his economics are integrated by the same principle of self-command, or self-reliance, which manifests itself in economics in laissez faire" (Spiegel, The Growth of Economic Thought). The translation was undertaken by Pavel A. Bibikov (1831-1875), a well-known Russian historian, philosopher, and literary critic who had produced a translation of Smith's Wealth of Nations two years previously in 1866. Both translations were published in Bibikov's book series the Library of Classical European Writers, which also included translations of the likes of Thomas Robert Malthus, Francis Bacon, and A.L. Blanqui, amongst others. Bibikov's translation of The Theory of Moral Sentiments is appended by a series of eight letters by Sophie de Condorcet (1764-1822) on the subject of sympathy addressed to her brother-in-law, the eminent French physiologist Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis. The letters were first published as an appendix to a French translation of The Theory of Moral Sentiments produced by Sophie de Condorcet in 1798, discreetly addressed to an anonymous "C .". The identity of the recipient as Cabanis was not revealed until a posthumous French edition published in 1830, which was most likely the source material for Bibikov's translation presented here, consistent with his other translations of English works, including his translations of the Wealth of Nations and Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population, which were both translated from French editions. Adam Smith was relatively well-known in Russia, having been widely read by leading Russian Enlightenment figures in the late-eighteenth century and enjoying popularity amongst educated nobility in the first half of the nineteenth century. However, "Russian government officials did not always receive Smith?s works positively after 1870. On 5 January 1884 both The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments could be seen in a list of books that were to be banned from all reading rooms and public libraries in Russia. This ban was probably short-lived and less than vigorously enforced, but it suggests that some uneasiness about Smith?s ideas existed in Russia" (Barnett, A History of Russian Economic Thought, p. 31). See: Artemieva, 'Adam Smith in Russian Translation' in Tribe (ed.) A Critical Bibliography of Adam Smith. Rare. OCLC list three copies, two in the US held by Yale and Illinois, and one at the National Library of Scotland.