On Adam Smith Problem

Adam Smith’s two works The Theory of Moral Sentiments and an Inquiry into the Natureand Causes of The Wealth of Nations had great influence on later generations. The school ofGerman history pointed out that sympathy was the basic of human behavior in The Theory ofMoral Sentiments. Paradoxically, economic person’s nature was self-interested according toThe Wealth of Nations. While the school of Marginal utility believed that Smith held the samecoherent descriptions about human nature in the two works. The debate between the twoschools opened the studies on Smith’s human nature theory, and has formed two kinds ofbasic concepts, the one insisted that Smith was an altruist in ethics, but an egoist in economics,and apparently there were contradictions in his human nature theory. However, the otherconsidered the opposite view.Adam Smith was deeply influenced by the human theories of Hobbes，Hutcheson，Humeand so on. In the opening page of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, he said that everyone hassympathy, and that sympathy was man’s original nature. In The Wealth of Nations,self-interest is the purpose of human economic activity. Sympathy and self-interest are bothnatural affections and different sides of human nature. The ones who sympathize with othersare for get sympathy from them; meanwhile, they hope their behaviors and emotions will bepraised by others. They are motivated by self-interest, but this process needs supervision ofimpartial spectators. Due to the guidance of invisible hand, the pursuing for individualeconomic benefits will promote the social benefits. Under the supervision of impartialspectators and the guidance of invisible hand, moral person with sympathy and economicperson with self-interest achieve unification; in other words, both of them are moral andself-interest people. And the unification of moral person and economic person is of importanttheoretical and practical significance in studying Smith’s problem, strengthening the socialistmoral system and legal system construction, building a harmonious socialist society andhelping people to set up the right value concept.