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amorriscode's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fascinating book for me. It really opened my eyes to the world of Adam Smith and has developed an interest in economics. The ideas are simple but effective, if not obvious but elegantly spoken. Helpful to practice and be happy.
alyssagh's review against another edition
4.0
I read part of Adam Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments for a class in college, but I really enjoyed this refresher and Roberts' analysis on how to lead a more "virtuous" life in our contemporary world. Reading this was an excellent reminder that human interaction is a complex, ever-changing system, and quantitative analysis will never be able to full capture every decision and thought process we make. Roberts' political leanings weren't as explicit as I feared they would be, and this was a fun and engaging read that explained some of economics' "big ideas" in a new and interesting way, with an emphasis on morality and stewardship.
howardgo's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Most people are familiar with Adam Smith's book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, more commonly referred to as simply The Wealth of Nations. But seventeen years earlier he published his first and less famous book The Theory of Moral Sentiments. This is the book that Russ Roberts sets out to summarize and modernize in his book How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life.
One of Smith's key ideas that Roberts emphasizes is the idea of the "impartial spectator", what we might today call a conscience. The concept is that we all operate with this spectator in our heads, judging us, telling us what to do. It is this "impartial spectator" that keeps us on the straight and narrow even when no one is looking. Ultimately, we all want to be seen as good and this is the tool by which we do so.
The book applies this thinking to other concepts like knowing yourself, how to be happy, and how to not fool yourself. I found that all the concepts really struck home for me. They rang true. And I found myself feeling like Adam Smith's first book is the missing companion to his second.
There is much criticism in the world today for capitalism and markets. They are cold and have led to tremendous inequality. We lament that this system only sees people for their utility. Where is the humanity? It is in the first Adam Smith book! And in the last chapter, Roberts even touches on this.
At the end of the book Roberts points out that Smith's first book is about the people close to us while Smith's second book is about strangers. We need to learn to live with both, but in order to get much past subsistence living, we need a way to reliably work with strangers. Markets are how we rely on self-interest to direct public good among strangers. But for those we are close to it isn't markets or money but culture and the "impartial spectator" that comes from shared culture that directs us. Perhaps the solution here is to combine what we learn from Smith's two great works about how to deal with both strangers and our loved ones.
gppollak's review against another edition
5.0
Great easy read. Interesting context on how to live a virtuous life from the father of modern day economics.
icywaterfall's review against another edition
4.0
Even though we are profoundly self-interested, we do not always act in what appears to be our self-interest. Why do we sacrifice our well-being to help others? Our behaviour is driven, according to Smith, by an imaginary interaction with an impartial spectator; what spurs us to take care of our neighbor is the desire to act honorably and nobly in order to satisfy the standard that would be set by this impartial spectator.
How can we be Happy? ‘Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely’, which can roughly be translated as; we want to be loved, admired, respected, etc, AND we want to be worthy of being loved. When we earn the admiration of others honestly by being respectable, honorable, blameless, generous, and kind, the end result is true happiness. So someone who is thought to be lovely, but actually isn’t, is living a lie. Smith is encouraging us to strive for harmony between our inner and outer selves; we may be tempted to be loved without being lovely, but the wise man avoids that temptation.
But, despite that temptation, we are prone to self-deception. We want not only to be loved, we want to think of ourselves as lovely. Self-deception makes me think I’m lovely when I’m not, virtuous when I’m not; beware self-deception and beware he who thinks he’s immune from self-deception.
Money and fame don’t lead to happiness; what leads to happiness is being loved and being lovely. Smith is scathing about fame and fortune; they should be kept in perspective. Pursue money and fame and recognition, but don’t be consumed by them; don’t make them your primary aim in life; keep being loved and lovely as your primary aims in life. The former is a means to an end (more money, fame, etc) but the latter is an end in itself. If you seek more money, you’ll never be satisfied; but if you seek to be lovely and loved, you’ll always be satisfied. So if material success is so destructive, why do people pursue it so? Because the world pays attention to rich and famous and powerful people, not to wise and virtuous people. Money and fame are therefore paths to being loved and noticed by others; but if they are pursued for their own sake, they lead to downfall because you’ll always need more and more and more; eventually there won’t be any more and you’ll be left with nothing, like searching for that first high.
But what is loveliness? Smith has two answers: the first is propriety (appropriate responses to those around you), meaning acting in the way that those around us expect and that allows them to interact with us in the way that we expect. We prefer harmony in out mutual sentiments to disharmony; what I really want is that your emotions harmonize with my own as I face tragedy or triumph. Behaving with propriety is the ability to conform to the expectations of those around us, and they in turn conform to our expectations. Propriety gains you the approval of those around you, but it’s not admired. For that, you need the second thing that makes you lovely, namely:
Virtue: this is multifaceted but refers to prudence, justice, and beneficence. Prudence means taking care of yourself, justice means not hurting others, and beneficence means being good to others.
HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER: A million things are the result of human action but not human design; what’s known as emergent order. Individual choices can lead to important social outcomes; each one of us created the moral society that we inhabit by the judgments that we make. Everyone, meaning no one in particular, decides what is proper and improper. How do norms emerge from our actions? Social feedback that we give and receive influences how we behave and how others behave in response to our reactions. We want to be around good people and we shun bad people. The virtues of courtesy and kindness and thoughtfulness and compassion and honour we celebrate; lying and stealing and meanness and spite we shun.
We all have two parts to play in maintaining civilization:
We need to be lovely even when we can get away with not being lovely;
We need to encourage others to behave well and dissuade bad behaviour.
As more and more of us take these steps, our seemingly negligible actions are no longer negligible. Through our actions, we create the norms and rules of what is attractive and unattractive. When you can trust the people you deal with, life is lovelier and economic life is much easier. It’s such an advantage to live in a society of high trust in public institutions; but it’s not easy to create trust. Being trustworthy doesn’t just lead to pleasant interactions. We’re all part of a system of norms and informal rules that is much bigger than ourselves; when we behave virtuously, we sustain that system. If you want to make the world a better place, work on being trustworthy, and honour those who are trustworthy.
However, you cannot make the world a better place if you are a man of the system: the leader with a scheme to remake society according to some master plan or vision. Such people fall in love with their vision of the ideal society and lose the ability to imagine any deviation from that perfection. Utopias can be dangerous and the world is so complicated that the small things we do in our everyday lives have a bigger impact than the political movements we join. Still want to make the world better? Talk to your kids, parents, smile at people, etc. Do the small things because these are the stuff of the good life.
How did Smith come to write two completely different books, namely the Wealth of Nations and the Theory of Moral Sentiments? The former deals with how we behave in a world of impersonal exchange, which is the world of strangers, and in the latter he deals with the fact that we care more about the people around us than we do about others who are farther away. Both books simply have a different focus; both books concern different spheres of human interaction; the personal (Sentiments) and the impersonal (Wealth). There’s a stark difference between the loving world of spouse and children, where everything is shared and cooperation is generated by love, and the less friendly world of work, where cooperation is generated by the potential for profit and the fear of loss. Our economic system has to be impersonal if it is to be deliver the life-transforming gifts of better health, music, etc. In a world of specialization, this is inevitable, but this is ok. Love locally, trade globally.
How can we be Happy? ‘Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely’, which can roughly be translated as; we want to be loved, admired, respected, etc, AND we want to be worthy of being loved. When we earn the admiration of others honestly by being respectable, honorable, blameless, generous, and kind, the end result is true happiness. So someone who is thought to be lovely, but actually isn’t, is living a lie. Smith is encouraging us to strive for harmony between our inner and outer selves; we may be tempted to be loved without being lovely, but the wise man avoids that temptation.
But, despite that temptation, we are prone to self-deception. We want not only to be loved, we want to think of ourselves as lovely. Self-deception makes me think I’m lovely when I’m not, virtuous when I’m not; beware self-deception and beware he who thinks he’s immune from self-deception.
Money and fame don’t lead to happiness; what leads to happiness is being loved and being lovely. Smith is scathing about fame and fortune; they should be kept in perspective. Pursue money and fame and recognition, but don’t be consumed by them; don’t make them your primary aim in life; keep being loved and lovely as your primary aims in life. The former is a means to an end (more money, fame, etc) but the latter is an end in itself. If you seek more money, you’ll never be satisfied; but if you seek to be lovely and loved, you’ll always be satisfied. So if material success is so destructive, why do people pursue it so? Because the world pays attention to rich and famous and powerful people, not to wise and virtuous people. Money and fame are therefore paths to being loved and noticed by others; but if they are pursued for their own sake, they lead to downfall because you’ll always need more and more and more; eventually there won’t be any more and you’ll be left with nothing, like searching for that first high.
But what is loveliness? Smith has two answers: the first is propriety (appropriate responses to those around you), meaning acting in the way that those around us expect and that allows them to interact with us in the way that we expect. We prefer harmony in out mutual sentiments to disharmony; what I really want is that your emotions harmonize with my own as I face tragedy or triumph. Behaving with propriety is the ability to conform to the expectations of those around us, and they in turn conform to our expectations. Propriety gains you the approval of those around you, but it’s not admired. For that, you need the second thing that makes you lovely, namely:
Virtue: this is multifaceted but refers to prudence, justice, and beneficence. Prudence means taking care of yourself, justice means not hurting others, and beneficence means being good to others.
HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER: A million things are the result of human action but not human design; what’s known as emergent order. Individual choices can lead to important social outcomes; each one of us created the moral society that we inhabit by the judgments that we make. Everyone, meaning no one in particular, decides what is proper and improper. How do norms emerge from our actions? Social feedback that we give and receive influences how we behave and how others behave in response to our reactions. We want to be around good people and we shun bad people. The virtues of courtesy and kindness and thoughtfulness and compassion and honour we celebrate; lying and stealing and meanness and spite we shun.
We all have two parts to play in maintaining civilization:
We need to be lovely even when we can get away with not being lovely;
We need to encourage others to behave well and dissuade bad behaviour.
As more and more of us take these steps, our seemingly negligible actions are no longer negligible. Through our actions, we create the norms and rules of what is attractive and unattractive. When you can trust the people you deal with, life is lovelier and economic life is much easier. It’s such an advantage to live in a society of high trust in public institutions; but it’s not easy to create trust. Being trustworthy doesn’t just lead to pleasant interactions. We’re all part of a system of norms and informal rules that is much bigger than ourselves; when we behave virtuously, we sustain that system. If you want to make the world a better place, work on being trustworthy, and honour those who are trustworthy.
However, you cannot make the world a better place if you are a man of the system: the leader with a scheme to remake society according to some master plan or vision. Such people fall in love with their vision of the ideal society and lose the ability to imagine any deviation from that perfection. Utopias can be dangerous and the world is so complicated that the small things we do in our everyday lives have a bigger impact than the political movements we join. Still want to make the world better? Talk to your kids, parents, smile at people, etc. Do the small things because these are the stuff of the good life.
How did Smith come to write two completely different books, namely the Wealth of Nations and the Theory of Moral Sentiments? The former deals with how we behave in a world of impersonal exchange, which is the world of strangers, and in the latter he deals with the fact that we care more about the people around us than we do about others who are farther away. Both books simply have a different focus; both books concern different spheres of human interaction; the personal (Sentiments) and the impersonal (Wealth). There’s a stark difference between the loving world of spouse and children, where everything is shared and cooperation is generated by love, and the less friendly world of work, where cooperation is generated by the potential for profit and the fear of loss. Our economic system has to be impersonal if it is to be deliver the life-transforming gifts of better health, music, etc. In a world of specialization, this is inevitable, but this is ok. Love locally, trade globally.
thegreenchair's review against another edition
1.0
If you find antiquated English difficult to read or understand upon glance, this book is for you. If you find yourself to be quite the reverse, just go read Adam Smith's [b:The Theory of Moral Sentiments|25700|The Theory of Moral Sentiments|Adam Smith|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328863965s/25700.jpg|308867]; it will be a better use of your time. Whilst the language Smith uses may have been lost in today's televised climate, the moral sentiments can still be found "discussed" in today's world, even in episodes of The Simpsons.
The author writes from his personal view, which appears to be as a white, married male of a certain age and disposition that really only appeals to those of similar qualities. A good portion of his story revelations have already been discovered by most females before the age of 12.
I would recommend this to anyone who is in junior high school who has not already been exposed to philosophy, early classical Greek or Roman works or any type of good literature from any geographical or temporal location. This book is very much a self-help edition for people who did not care to read the original work but still try to lead a better life.
The author writes from his personal view, which appears to be as a white, married male of a certain age and disposition that really only appeals to those of similar qualities. A good portion of his story revelations have already been discovered by most females before the age of 12.
I would recommend this to anyone who is in junior high school who has not already been exposed to philosophy, early classical Greek or Roman works or any type of good literature from any geographical or temporal location. This book is very much a self-help edition for people who did not care to read the original work but still try to lead a better life.
holtfan's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 Stars
I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, I appreciate the author's passion for Adam Smith and desire to convey his theories and work to modern readers.
On the other hand, one of the first things you learn in academic writing is not to bore your reader with block quotes. And this book contains many block quotes.
Russ Roberts is an Adam Smith fangirl who wishes to share his passion for the author and desires to turn Adam Smith's [b:The Theory of Moral Sentiments|25700|The Theory of Moral Sentiments|Adam Smith|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328863965s/25700.jpg|308867] into a modern day self-help book. I think what frustrated me most about this book is that it seemed to take ideas and theories that ought to have been quite interesting and left them...shallow. I was frustrated by the repetitive nature of the work and the basic, pop-psychology lingo used to 'flesh' out the ideas.
Further, I found I did not agree (or I found a different foundation for agreeing) with many of the points of the book. (Presumably, Smith's viewpoints.)
I will read the original work eventually because if nothing else, this book piqued my interest. But at the same time, it also lowered my expectations.
I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, I appreciate the author's passion for Adam Smith and desire to convey his theories and work to modern readers.
On the other hand, one of the first things you learn in academic writing is not to bore your reader with block quotes. And this book contains many block quotes.
Russ Roberts is an Adam Smith fangirl who wishes to share his passion for the author and desires to turn Adam Smith's [b:The Theory of Moral Sentiments|25700|The Theory of Moral Sentiments|Adam Smith|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328863965s/25700.jpg|308867] into a modern day self-help book. I think what frustrated me most about this book is that it seemed to take ideas and theories that ought to have been quite interesting and left them...shallow. I was frustrated by the repetitive nature of the work and the basic, pop-psychology lingo used to 'flesh' out the ideas.
Further, I found I did not agree (or I found a different foundation for agreeing) with many of the points of the book. (Presumably, Smith's viewpoints.)
I will read the original work eventually because if nothing else, this book piqued my interest. But at the same time, it also lowered my expectations.
inquiry_from_an_anti_library's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
5.0
This books is a marvelous revision of Adam Smith's first book 'Theory of Moral Sentiments'. Roberts translates antediluvian examples which have different meaning into modern day language and examples in keeping with the original meaning. This book shows the meaning in the feedback that we get from everyone in society. The lessons that any reader can learn from this book are timeless. It seems that just attaining something has less importance than actually deserving of something. A small flaw is when Roberts makes an example that takes a lot of time to get to the purpose of it.