The Theory of Moral Sentiments Ch. 38 Summary

Adam Smith

When Reason Rules Our Hearts

0:00

0:00 / 0:00

0:00

Summary

Smith examines the doctrine that reason is the original principle of approbation. Hobbes had made civil obedience the measure of right; opponents replied that the mind must possess antecedent notions of right and wrong, and that reason distinguishes moral fit from unfit as it distinguishes truth from falsehood. Cudworth showed that law itself presupposes the ideas it is said to create.

Smith grants that reason is the source of general moral maxims. We observe what pleases or displeases our moral faculties, inductively form rules, and regulate judgment by them when immediate feeling would be variable. In this sense virtue may be said to consist in conformity to reason. Yet it is absurd to suppose that first perceptions of right and wrong in particular cases arise from reason. Whatever is agreeable or disagreeable for its own sake must be so to immediate sense and feeling; reason can show means to ends, not render an object intrinsically pleasing.

If virtue necessarily pleases and vice displeases for its own sake, the original distinction belongs to sentiment, not to deduction. Dr. Hutcheson first separated with precision what in moral judgment belongs to reason and what to immediate feeling; Smith endorses that division. The determination of this second question, he adds, is of great speculative but little practical importance: how approbation arises does not alter what, in particular cases, we ought to approve.

In this chapter:Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Reading Your Moral Compass

Recognize and trust your immediate emotional responses to ethical situations as sophisticated pattern recognition, not primitive weakness. Smith grounds the point in a concrete scene from moral spectatorship.

This week, pause before you call an emotion excessive and ask what situation you have not yet pictured.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: The reason-first judge

Opponents of Hobbes said reason distinguishes moral fit from unfit as it distinguishes truth from falsehood. Cudworth showed that law itself presupposes the ideas it is said to create. Smith grants that we derive general maxims from reason, and still denies that reason is the first spark. The reason-first judge arrives after a sentiment has already taken sides.

Continue this thoughtTwo Persons in One Breast

Coming Up in Chapter 39

Having shown that reason alone can't explain our moral judgments, Smith turns to explore the power of sentiment and feeling as the true foundation of our ethical lives. He'll reveal how our emotions, not our logic, guide us toward justice and compassion..

PreviousPrevious Chapter NextNext Chapter

Original text

1,499 wordscomplete

Chapter 38

When Reason Rules Our Hearts

Of those systems which make reason the principle of approbation. It is well known to have been the doctrine of Mr. Hobbes, that a state of nature, is a state of war; and that antecedent to the institution of civil government, there could be no safe or peaceable society among men. To preserve society, therefore, according to him, was to support civil government, and to destroy civil government was the same thing as to put an end to society. But the existence of civil government depends upon the obedience that is paid to the supreme magistrate. The moment he loses…

Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.

Master this chapter. Complete your experience

Purchase the complete book to access all chapters and support classic literature

Buy atAmazon.com

Available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book formats

The Wealth of Nations

Adam Smith

Also by Adam Smith

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde

Explores morality & ethics

Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

Fanny Burney

Explores morality & ethics

Gulliver's Travels

Jonathan Swift

Explores morality & ethics

Lessons from The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Theme-by-theme analyses that connect this book to modern life skills.

Deep diving the literary elements.

When Reason Rules Our Hearts

Summary

Why This Matters