"adam Smith Problem" And The Moral Construction Under The Socialist Market Economy

Adam Smith is the great moral philosopher and economist in the18th century,and he has written two books in his life,“The Wealth of Nations " and "The Theory ofMoral Sentiments". Smith has discussed the moral system in the base of sympathy inthe book of "The Theory of Moral Sentiments", then ultimately forming his moraltheory system. In addition, in the book of "The Wealth of Nations", Smith hasunderstood and criticized deeply the economic theory and practiced of the18thcentury, ultimately forming he theoretical system of classical economics."The Smith Problem" is first put forward by the German Historical School ofeconomists. The main element is the conflict between the human self-interest andaltruistic nature in “The Wealth of Nations" and "The Theory of Moral Sentiments".The two books have different points of view, which has led many scholars to have amisunderstanding of Smith’s thought. So this article aims to resolve whether "TheSmith Problem" exists or not.The main feature of this article is to study the details of each concept in the twobooks,quoting a lot of references to the original as the evidence to make therelationships between each concept become clearly visible, and to compare with theviews of well-known scholar in the same field in order to find the final solution of "The Smith Problem" in the views of the collision.This paper is mainly divided into four parts:The first part has a brief introduction of the background, writings and the idea ofSmith, then analyzes the so-called "The Smith Problem" put forwarded by thedescendants, which is to prove that Smith Problem is a pseudo-problem.The second part has discussed the intrinsic relationship between market andmorality in detail around the two books. On the one hand, Smith has rectified marketeconomy and pointed that the market economy is the necessary economic carrier ofmoral existence. On the other hand, morality is the important support for sustainableoperation of modern market economy. So they have unified dialectically in humannature.,and this section also makes a very important theoretical foil for analysising themoral construction under socialist market economy.The third part interprets the idea of Smith in detail so as to solve the effectiveways of the so-called “The Smith Problem". There are several key points, such as: theinvisible hand, sympathy, the impartial spectator, desirable virtues and so on.The last part tells the Smith’s doctrine of the relationship between the marketeconomy and the moral, as well as the enlightenment on the moral construction ofChina’s socialist market economy. The moral construction under our socialist market economy, should correctly grasp the pursuit of self-interest, to create a wealthy socialincentive environment. And we should strengthen the effective supervision of theGovernment, realize the organic integration of East-West moral and old-new moral,construct the justice system under the conditions of the socialist market economy, andcreate a good social environment and atmosphere of public opinion.