Adam Smith

Adam Smith makes many good points in the theory of moral sentiments. The passage I found most interesting was "As we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are affected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation." To me, this illustrated a few things. People need to be able to relate to others circumstances in order to feel sympathy for them. We can see this in today's society where people often judge others who are different from them harshly. Richer people have a harder time relating to the struggles of poor people. Do you agree that people most often feel sympathy for others that are like them? Do we judge others by there actions?

I enjoyed Smiths piece the most out of all the authors that we have read. This quote really resonated with me "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." This goes against many writers viewpoints that we have read so far. Smith has a gentler take on human nature. He assumes that men can do things for others because he enjoys it. This differs from Hobbes who think that men are always in a constant state of war.