The fertility of Adam Smith's work stems from a paradoxical structure where the pursuit of economic self-interest and wealth accumulation serve wider social objectives. The incentive for this wealth accumulation comes from a desire for social recognition or "sympathy" -- the need to recognise...

1. Introduction : personal ethics and social morality -- 2. Sympathy, communication, exchange: the horizontal world -- 3. The vertical world of the impartial spectator -- 4. The paradoxical synthesis -- 5. Conclusion: the ethics of morality.