A Brief Analysis Of Adam Smith's Concept Of Nature

In the present age,a large part of scholars attach too much importance to The Wealth of Nations worked by Adam Smith,but neglecting The Theory of Moral Sentiments which is Smith's first book.They often break up the unity of self-interest and altruism,which producing some extreme cognition of human nature and causing the debate on so-called “problem of Adam Smith”.Further more,these improper perceptions are harmful to our society.The root of the above misconceptions lies in that some scholars lack of in-depth research on Adam Smith's two famous books.In view of this fact,this thesis studies Adam Smith's two works from the perspective of text analysis,elaborating his thought of nature and its effect on our Chinese economy.This thesis takes the concept of nature as the research object.Firstly,the paper reviews the literature about the conception of nature from ancient Greek to the present day,thinking that the concept of nature should be classified into two categories.The first is essence,including things themselves,the basis of thing,human nature and natural law.And the second is the natural word.At the same time,this paper reviews the literature about Adam Smith's conception of nature,concluding that scholars research it from sociology,moral philosophy,economic and theology and so on.Then,the paper interprets the conception of nature in the book of The Theory of Moral Sentiments,finding that they can be classified into two categories.The first is human nature and the second is Goddess of nature.They have the function of defining human nature and demonstrating the mechanism of social order.Afterwards,this thesis denies the existence of “problem of Adam Smith”,and criticizes the extreme views which breaking up the unity of self-interest and altruism or government intervention and laissez-faire.From these,the paper provides a reference for the construction of socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics.Finally,the paper questions the modern view about the market being the only way to human freedom.Since human beings are not rational enough,altruism should also be included into the way of human freedom.