Ten Thousand Commandments:
Adam Smith’s Moral Sentiments as an
Esoteric Critique of Interventionism
By Daniel Klein, Mercatus, GMU & Ratio Institute
The Ten Commandments
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Commutative Justice
Not messing with other
people’s stuff
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Should I put a blanket on my
horse?
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Wayne Crews, Competitive
Enterprise Institute
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175,496 Total Pages
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Adam Smith (1723-1790)
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The Theory of Moral
Sentiments
or An Essay [about how] Men
naturally judge concerning the
Conduct and Character, first of
their Neighbours, and afterwards
of themselves
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Two relationships
1. The equal-equal relationship
2. The superior-inferior relationship
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Encyclopedia of Diderot
EXOTERIC and ESOTERIC, adj.:
The first of these words signifies exterior, the
second, interior. The ancient philosophers
had a double doctrine; the one external,
public or exoteric; the other internal, secret or
esoteric.
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Condorcet:
Wrote of thinkers in England and France
“covering the truth with a veil to spare eyes too
weak, and leaving others the pleasure of
divining it; …[and] seeming not to want more
than a semi-tolerance in religion and a semiliberty in politics…”
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Leo Strauss (1899-1973)
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Arthur Melzer
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Melzer’s book shows that
 Esotericism was widely practiced and
acknowledged
 People debated its worthiness in the 18th
century
 Around 1800 it declined sharply
 We have lost awareness of it
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Melzer’s book
 Explains four purposes of esotericism:
 Defensive
 Protective
 Pedagogical
 Political
 Provides a Beginner’s Guide to Esoteric Reading
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Dissembling the true target
“I claim X about Y”
Exoteric: The apparent target is Y.
Esoteric: The true target is Z.
Today I treat three moments in TMS.
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Part V of TMS
“Of the Influence of Custom and
Fashion …”
-- 18 pages long
-- strange and meandering
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Question: Can custom and fashion deeply pervert
moral sentiments?
Answer: Deep perversion cannot infect “the general
style of character and behavior”, but “the greatest
perversion” can occur in “particular usages”.
Infanticide – “a practice…of [ancient] Greece”
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Final paragraph of Part V
“There is an obvious reason why custom should
never pervert our sentiments with regard to the
general style and character of conduct and
behaviour, in the same degree as with regard to
…particular usages. ... No society could subsist
a moment, in which the usual strain of men's
conduct and behaviour was of a piece with the
horrible practice I have19 just now mentioned.”
Commutative Justice
Not messing with other
people’s stuff
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A few pages earlier
Refined, civilized societies excel in the soft, amiable,
humane virtues.
Rude, uncivilized societies excel in the awesome,
respectable virtues of self-command.
“Among rude and barbarous nations…the virtues of selfdenial are more cultivated than those of humanity.”
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“The savages in North America…assume upon all
occasions the greatest indifference, and would
think themselves degraded if they should ever
appear in any respect to be overcome, either by
love, or grief, or resentment. Their magnanimity
and self-command, in this respect, are almost
beyond the conception of Europeans.”
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Self-command
No tenderness in love
Insensibility and contempt in
duress
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“When a savage is made prisoner of war, and receives, as is
usual, the sentence of death from his conquerors, he hears it
without expressing any emotion, and afterwards submits to the
most dreadful torments, without ever bemoaning himself, or
discovering any other passion but contempt of his enemies. While
he is hung by the shoulders over a slow fire, he derides his
tormentors, and tells them with how much more ingenuity he
himself had tormented such of their countrymen as had fallen into
his hands. ...”
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“After he has been scorched and burnt, and lacerated
in all the most tender and sensible parts of his body for
several hours together, he is often allowed, in order to
prolong his misery, a short respite, and is taken down
from the stake: he employs this interval in talking upon
all indifferent subjects, inquires after the news of the
country, and seems indifferent about nothing but his
own situation. …”
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“Every savage is said to prepare himself from his earliest youth for
this dreadful end. He composes, for this purpose, what they call the
song of death, a song which he is to sing when he has fallen into
the hands of his enemies, and is expiring under the tortures which
they inflict upon him. It consists of insults upon his tormentors, and
expresses the highest contempt of death and pain. He sings this
song upon all extraordinary occasions, when he goes out to war,
when he meets his enemies in the field, or whenever he has a mind
to show that he has familiarised his imagination to the most dreadful
misfortunes, and that no human event can daunt his resolution, or
alter his purpose…”
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“The same contempt of death and torture prevails among all other
savage nations. There is not a negro from the coast of Africa who
does not, in this respect, possess a degree of magnanimity which
the soul of his sordid master is too often scarce capable of
conceiving. Fortune never exerted more cruelly her empire over
mankind, than when she subjected those nations of heroes to the
refuse of the jails of Europe, to wretches who possess the virtues
neither of the countries which they come from, nor of those which
they go to, and whose levity, brutality, and baseness, so justly
expose them to the contempt of the vanquished.”
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“There is not a negro from the coast of Africa who does
not, in this respect, possess a degree of magnanimity
which the soul of his sordid master is too often scarce
capable of conceiving. Fortune never exerted more
cruelly her empire over mankind, than when she
subjected those nations of heroes to the refuse of the
jails of Europe, to wretches who possess the virtues
neither of the countries which they come from, nor of
those which they go to, and whose levity, brutality, and
baseness, so justly expose them to the contempt of the
vanquished.”
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Smith continues: “This heroic and unconquerable firmness … is not required of those
who are brought up to live in civilized societies.”
Refinement softens manners:
“the French and the Italians, the two most polished nations upon the continent”
“An Italian, says the abbot Dû Bos, expresses more emotion on being condemned in a
fine of twenty shillings, than an Englishman on receiving the sentence of death.”
“This animated eloquence, which has been long practised … in France and Italy, is but
just beginning to be introduced into England. So wide is the difference between the
degrees of self-command which are required in civilized and in barbarous nations…”.
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Final paragraph of Part V
“No society could subsist a moment, in
which the usual strain of men's conduct
and behaviour was of a piece with the
horrible practice I have just now
mentioned.”
Why was Smith so indirect?
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Britain banned the Slave
Trade in 1807
Arthur Lee, An Essay in Vindication … (1764)
William Wilberforce (1759-1833)
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Final section of TMS (VII.iv)
“Of the Manner in which different
Authors have treated of the practical
Rules of Morality”
 Apparently about equal-equal
relationships
 16 pages
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Two relationships
1. The equal-equal relationship
2. The superior-inferior relationship
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“It was observed in the third part of this discourse, that
the rules of justice are the only rules of morality which
are precise and accurate; that those of all the other
virtues are loose, vague, and indeterminate; that the
first may be compared to the rules of grammar; the
others to those which critics lay down for the
attainment of what is sublime and elegant in
composition…”
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Aesthetics &
Commutative Justice
Aesthetics
Praiseworthy
Propriety
Blameworthy
Grammar
Commutative
Justice
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Nature of the Rules
“precise and accurate”
Rules for Writing
Rules for Conduct
(Morals)
Feedback on how well
your performance
accords with the rules
Grammar
“loose, vague, and indeterminate”
“rules which critics lay down for the
attainment of what is sublime and
elegant in composition”
Commutative Justice
(CJ)
ALL OTHER VIRTUES!
Only Negative
Negative and Positive
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The special virtue:
Commutative justice
 Its rules are “precise and accurate”
 Only negative (in two senses)
 May be forced (even among equals)
 “indispensible”
 Admits of a flipside: Liberty
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Grammarians
Moralists
Critics
“all the ancient
moralists”
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Grammarians
Natural
jurisprudence
writers
Books of
Casuistry
Moralists
Critics
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Jurisprudence
“By observing all the rules of
jurisprudence, supposing them ever so
perfect, we should deserve nothing but to
be free from external punishment.”
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Grammarians
Natural
jurisprudence
writers
Books of
Casuistry
Moralists
Critics
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Casuistry
“… of the middle and latter ages of the Christian church”
“What seems principally to have given occasion to [casuistry] was the
custom of auricular confession, introduced by the Roman Catholic
superstition, in times of barbarism and ignorance. By [auricular
confession], the most secret actions, and even the thoughts of every
person, which could be suspected of receding in the smallest degree
from the rules of Christian purity, were to be revealed to the confessor.
The confessor informed his penitents whether, and in what respect they
had violated their duty, and what penance it behoved them to undergo,
before he could absolve them in the name of the offended Deity.”
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Highwayman
“To give a trite example; a highwayman, by the fear of
death, obliges a traveller to promise him a certain sum
of money. Whether such a promise, extorted in this
manner by unjust force, ought to be regarded as
obligatory, is a question that has been very much
debated.”
He devotes three pages to this!
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Highwayman ≈ Government
Cicero & St. Augustine (pirate and Alexander story)
Montaigne
Hobbes
Algernon Sidney
Barbeyrac
Locke
Hume
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Locke, The Second Treatise
“That the aggressor, who puts himself into the state of war with another, and unjustly
invades another man’s right, can, by such an unjust war, never come to have a right over
the conquered, will be easily agreed by all men, who will not think, that robbers and
pyrates have a right of empire over whomsoever they have force enough to master;
or that men are bound by promises, which unlawful force extorts from them.
Should a robber break into my house, and with a dagger at my throat make me seal
deeds to convey my estate to him, would this give him any title? Just such a title, by his
sword, has an unjust conqueror, who forces me into submission. The injury and the
crime is equal, whether committed by the wearer of a crown, or some petty villain.
The title of the offender, and the number of his followers, make no difference in the
offence, unless it be to aggravate it. The only difference is, great robbers punish little
ones, to keep them in their obedience; but the great ones are rewarded with laurels and
triumphs, because they are too big for the weak hands of justice in this world, and have
the power in their own possession, which should punish offenders.”
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Smith’s conclusion
Of the man who breaks the promise:
“… his character, if not irretrievably stained
and polluted, has at least a ridicule affixed to it,
which it will be very difficult entirely to efface;
and no man, I imagine, who had gone through
an adventure of this kind would be fond of
telling the story.”
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Two relationships
1. The equal-equal relationship
2. The superior-inferior relationship
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Casuistry ≈ 10k Commandments
“Books of casuistry, therefore, are generally as useless as they are
commonly tiresome. ... None of [their cases] tend to animate us to
what is generous and noble. None of them tend to soften us to what
is gentle and humane. Many of them, on the contrary, tend rather to
teach us to chicane with our own consciences, and by their vain
subtilties serve to authorise innumerable evasive refinements with
regard to the most essential articles of our duty. That frivolous
accuracy which they attempted to introduce into subjects which do
not admit of it, almost necessarily betrayed them into those
dangerous errors, and at the same time rendered their works dry and
disagreeable, abounding in abtruse and metaphysical distinctions …”
Recall from WN: “innumerable delusions”
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The new superstition
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Degovernmentalization
“Frankness and openness conciliate confidence. We trust the
man who seems willing to trust us. We see clearly, we think, the
road by which he means to conduct us, and we abandon
ourselves with pleasure to his guidance and direction. Reserve
and concealment, on the contrary, call forth diffidence. We are
afraid to follow the man who is going we do not know where. The
great pleasure of conversation and society, besides, arises from a
certain correspondence of sentiments and opinions, from a
certain harmony of minds, which like so many musical
instruments coincide and keep time with one another. But this
most delightful harmony cannot be obtained unless there is a free
communication of sentiments and opinions.”
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Degovernmentalization
“The two useful parts of moral philosophy, therefore,
are Ethics and Jurisprudence: casuistry ought to be
rejected altogether”
“natural jurisprudence”: “a theory of the general
principles which ought to run through and be the
foundation of the laws of all nations”
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At end of TMS
“I shall in another discourse endeavour to give an
account of the general principles of law and
government, and of the different revolutions they
have undergone in the different ages and periods
of society, not only in what concerns justice, but in
what concerns police, revenue, and arms, and
whatever else is the object of law.”
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Three moments of dissembling
the true target
 Infanticide ≈ slave trade
 Highwayman ≈ government
 The books of casuistry ≈ 10k
Commandments
(governmentalization)
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Esoteric writing in Smith
Many moments.
Condorcet: “…seeming not to want
more than … a semi-liberty in
politics…”
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The end
Thank you for your attention!
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