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How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide To Human Nature And Happiness (2014)

by Russ Roberts(Favorite Author)

3.99 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1591846846 (ISBN13: 9781591846840)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Portfolio Hardcover

review 1: Delightful and useful This book is easily comparable to "How Proust Can Change Your Life" and Russ Roberts mentions Alain de Botton's book as an inspiration in the acknowledgements at the end. Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments is much lesser known than Wealth of Nations but no less important. Readers will be thankful that Roberts has digested Adam Smith's difficult to read text - I love an obtusely written book and my copy of TMS has sat on the shelf unconquered for close to two decades - and produced a more palatable summary of Smith's major arguments. I originally questioned Roberts choice to untether himself from TMS logical sequence but finished the book untroubled, He is thankfully generous with quoting long selectionsso you get a feel for the original langua... morege. The timelessness of Smith's guidance is what makes this book useful. The infatuation with a pocket watch is eerily similar to that of the latest smartphone. Honestly evaluating our behavior is so difficult that, "Rather than see ourselves as we truly are, we see ourselves as we would like to be. Self deception can be more comforting tan self knowledge. We like to fool ourselves." (Roberts) Most entertaining is Smith's guidance on the illusory benefits of celebrity and money. Smith: "The great source of both the misery and disorders of human life, seems to arise from over-rating the difference between one permanent situation and another. Most rewarding is the idea that being good is the way to feel good. Roberts: "When we earn the admiration of others honestly by being respectable, honorable, blameless, generous, and kind, the end result is true happiness....Loveliness is an end in and of itself". Smith's demand that we strictly adhere to the rules of justice shows how he understands human nature all too well. We are very clever at finding "special circumstances" where rule breaking is permissible, even necessary. Roberts: "Hard-and-fast rules are easier to keep than rules that are slightly relaxed. You'd think abstinence would be much harder to keep than moderation. Yet it is much easier to give up potato chips than to eat just one. Or a few."The chapter "How to Make the World a Better Place" describes how each person can and must contribute by doing good each an every day. These small acts accrete imperceptibly but result in massive effects. The English language isn't dictated by a committee of scholars but composed of the daily usage of millions. Similarly, there are few obvious benefits to voting - the impact of an individual vote is mathematically meaningless - but millions of individual votes each election renew our democratic system. Doing good will not only make you happy but make the world a better place? Not a bad lesson from a entertaining and well written book.
review 2: While this was a fun and easy read, I still think it's lacking in areas. Adam Smith's work should be something everyone digests on their own terms and in balance with competing ways of thinking. Especially in regards to his moral philosophy. Something that as Russ Roberts shows, influenced his thinking, or was at least the other side of his thinking in Wealth of Nations. If anything, this book should at least get you interested in further exploring such an influential thinker. Even if you don't agree with Roberts interpretation, or even Smith's directly, it helps to know the works that have influenced so many. Roberts comparison of Smith's work as being two sides of the same coin was interesting. I didn't particularly agree and would have liked him to unpack this more than he did. Lastly, I found myself wondering how much did Roberts thinking influence his interpretation of Smith's moral thinking. Being a champion of liberty, free markets, and limited government, it became clear that his own philosophy influenced his reading of Smith. Or at least to me. I'm sure many would disagree with this, but I guess this just comes with such a short book. It was just under 250 pages, but each page has big text. Just being a fan of Adam Smith drove me to preorder this book when I saw it. I'm not upset that I did. I think this is just another interesting contribution to moral philosophy. Though clearly without any attempt to cross into moral psychology. less

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