Smith, Adam
The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
1759
First Edition

The Theory of Moral Sentiments laid the foundation on which The Wealth of Nations was later to be built and proposed the theory which would be repeated in the later work: that self-seeking men are often "led by an invisible hand... without knowing it, without intending it, [to] advance the interest of the society." With the Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations Smith aimed to compose "not merely a treatise on moral philosophy and a treatise on economics, but a complete moral and political philosophy, in which the two elements of history and theory were to be closely conjoined.

SMITH, Adam. An inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. 1776. First edition of Smith's landmark work on the individual's right to the free exercise of economic activity. "Where the political aspects of human rights had taken two centuries to explore, Smith's achievement was to bring the study of economic aspects to the same point in a single work... The certainty of its criticism and its grasp of human nature have made it the first and greatest classic of modern economic thought." Buckle's History of Civilization calls the Wealth of Nations "probably the most important book which has ever been written, whether we consider the amount of original thought which it contains, or its practical influence," while English political economist J.A.R. Mariott claimed that "There is probably no single work in the language which has in its day exercised an influence so profound alike upon scientific economic thought and upon administrative action. There is every reason why it should exercise it still."

Smith, Adam Essays on Philosophical Subjects...
1795

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