A wonderful book about Adam Smith's less feted masterpiece "The Theory of Moral Sentiments". Saves reading all 97 thousand words of the original whilst communicating his timeless ideas about how we should live our lives. Especially during this week of crisis in my home town of Barcelona the chapter on how to make the world a better place resonated deeply. As I walked around the city on Monday morning I felt that perhaps everyone felt a bit of guilt about what had occurred the previous day. Perhaps we are all a bit culpable either through action or inaction for how this situation has come about. And then I read about it in the ideas of Adam Smith this week.

"Our accumulated actions create the standards of loveliness.. It’s a small role, almost negligible. But together, our combined actions are decisive. Each step we take away from loveliness is a step away from civilization. As more and more of us take those steps, our seemingly negligible actions are no longer negligible. Through our actions, we create the norms and rules of what is attractive and what is unattractive."

If we are turn away from the brink our individually negligible, but collectively powerful actions all need to take a step back towards loveliness.

This is all you need to know.

"To be content, you need to be loved and to be lovely."

There are two ways to be loved. You can be rich and famous. Or you can be wise and virtuous.

Choose the second way, Smith counsels, the way of wisdom and virtue.

Why need Adam Smith when religious traditions give the same response?

I know -- Secular people would pay attention to what Russ Roberts has to say about Adam Smith.

However, if response came from any of the religious tradition, it is not palatable.

Don't read this book, if you have read enough in religious tradition, philosophy.

Basically, literature from Religious Tradition would offer the same.

Russ basically repackages it into Secular, shiny book.

If you want to Analyze Moral Philosophy, dive into Adam Smith's other works.

If you have never read a book in your life, go ahead.

Rich & Famous, sounds like lot of trouble and complexity in life.

Religious Tradition: Hinduism, Islamic, Buddhism, Jain, Christian tradition offer solid content.

Good luck handling it.

Overall, I'd say, Not Worth your Time, read religious literature for this

Deus Vult,
Gottfried

4.5/5

a really brilliant look at the intersectionality of economics and morality, all in a self-help & easy to digest voice. i want to read this one over and over again

A must read book for anyone and everyone. Concise, but managed to still go pretty deep on the character of human nature, and how we can all create more fulfilled lives for ourselves and those around us. Great revision of a classic yet relatively unknown book that brings it up to par with the modern world. Can’t recommend enough

I wouldn't say it's life-changing - but Roberts does a good job adapting a 1700s tome to modern day. And the central insight, that what motivates us is to be loved and be lovely, is a good way of boiling it down and looking at the world.

Preachy and repetitious. Basically, the author is making the case for morality (with which I agree 100%) without religion.

As entertaining as reading it for the first time; a primer for Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments... exceedingly illustrative

4.5/5

a really brilliant look at the intersectionality of economics and morality, all in a self-help & easy to digest voice. i want to read this one over and over again

A clear example of unmet expectations, as much as anything else. Perhaps another way to put it would be: right book, wrong time? Yes, Adam Smith has many good things to say about how to live morally...but I didn’t particularly find them revelatory. It made the book feel more like a set of aphorisms presented by an incredibly enthusiastic acolyte of the information, rather than a dispassionate, comparative analysis.

However, I don’t think Roberts was trying for anything BUT that sort of a book; he wrote the book he set out to write, and it wasn’t the book I was looking to read at that moment.