Is Adam Smith Heir of Bernard Mandeville?

Sociability, sympathy, moral sense, benevolence and self-love constituted the main themes of the eighteenth century moral discourse. Scottish philosophers of the era principally focused on the fact that moral sentiments could not be offspring of self-interest. Hutcheson’s theory of moral sense, Hume’s and Smith’s theories of sympathetic identification lay at the heart of their moral theory. Conversely, Bernard Mandeville annihilated social and moral principles by asserting self-love as a primary motivation of man. His notoriety among eighteenth century moralists was due to his famous motto “private vices cause public benefits”, his undaunted confession of self-love as a basic motive of human nature and its beneficial effects for a prosperous society. Many philosophers and moral theorists concentrated on his selfish hypothesis by offering counter arguments and justifications about origin of human nature, character of moral virtue and moral judgments. In his earlier work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS), Adam Smith defends the mechanism of sympathy as a ground of moral sentiments and draws attention to altruistic character of human nature. Although Smith designates Mandeville’s thesis as “licentious system” in TMS by propounding sympathy at the basis of morality, he uses selfinterest principle in The Wealth of Nations (WN) as a basic motive of human beings. This article aims to analyze whether Smith’s moral theory is successful to overcome Mandeville’s selfish principle or he successfully reconciles sympathy and self-love.