character is defined by the desires, passions, and emotions that one feels and how these
are brought under control by our moral sentiments. This section was included as a major
new addition to the final edition of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, the last edition
actually supervised directly by Smith during his lifetime in 1790, 14 years after the first
edition of the Wealth of Nations and 31 years after the first edition of The Theory of
Moral Sentiments. It is thus both a summing up and expansion of a number of crucial
themes developed in earlier editions of The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
With the exception of the final part of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which
was largely a literature review situating Smith’s ideas in the context of the history of
ideas, the other 5 parts in the earlier editions were dedicated to an analysis of what Smith
referred to as the “moral sentiments” and the psychological mechanisms by which moral
judgments were made, including discussions of the human capacity for sympathy and the
idea of the impartial spectator. These editions touched upon the issue of the individual
and the place of virtue in the life of the individual, but only in scattered and unsystematic
ways. In contrast, Part VI of the 6
th
edition pulls together Smith’s thoughts on the
individual and the life of virtue through a systematic discussion of the passions and the
virtues of prudence, justice, benevolence, and self-command and provides a vision of
political life that rejects the idea that human nature can be reduce to one or two
tendencies or desires such as self-interest or the fear of death.
The individual of Smith’s moral, political, and economic writing is a highly
complex social creature motivated by conflicting passions and emotions. His deepest
desires include those driving him to be a moral creature in the context of a larger political
community. At the heart of Smith’s brand of liberalism lies a larger vision of the political
4
Convention