The Theory of Moral Sentiments

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1759

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Part 2

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Of Merit and Demerit; Or, of the Objects of Reward and Punishment”, Part 2, Section 1: “Of the Sense of Merit and Demerit” - Part 2, Section 3: “Of the Influence of Fortune upon the Sentiments of Mankind, with Regard to the Merit or Demerit of Actions”

Part 2, Section 1, Introduction Summary

Smith describes merit and demerit as “the qualities of deserving reward, and of deserving punishment” (70). Part 1 focused on “our sense of the propriety or impropriety of actions”; Part 2 examines those actions’ “good or ill desert” (70).

Part 2, Section 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “That whatever appears to be the proper object of gratitude, appears to deserve reward; and that, in the same manner, whatever appears to be the proper object of resentment, appears to deserve punishment.”

Smith identifies gratitude and resentment as the sentiments that directly correlate with reward and punishment. In other words, those who feel gratitude come to regard the object(s) of their gratitude as deserving of reward, and those who feel resentment come to regard the object(s) of their resentment as deserving of punishment.

Part 2, Section 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Of the proper Objects of Gratitude and Resentment.”

Sympathy determines the proper objects of gratitude and resentment. A person who “appears to deserve reward […] is the natural object of a gratitude which every human heart is disposed to beat time to, and thereby applaud” (73). Likewise, someone who seems to “deserve punishment” is the “natural object of a resentment” that is readily adopted by reasonable men (73).