This book addresses three questions. One question is scholarly: namely, how ought we to account for the revisions that Smith made to the sixth edition of The Theory of Moral Sentiments? This scholarly question is itself animated by a political question: namely, what role should virtue play in modern commercial societies, and specifically, can virtue, properly conceived, enable us to enjoy the material advantages of commerce while minimizing commerce's most deleterious potential consequences? Finally, this political question, in turn, is motivated by a personal question: namely, what insight might Smith's account of virtue provide to citizens of commercial societies concerned with living the best life possible? In addressing these three questions, this book aspires to speak to three audiences: first, historians of eighteenth-century political thought interested in Smith's self-conception as a moral philosopher–turned-economist-turned-moralist again; second, social and political theorists engaged in the debate over the virtues requisite for the sustenance of commercial societies and the management of globalizing capitalism; and third, philosophers and psychologists and others both inside and outside the academy interested in the question of the happiest and best individual life and its role in promoting the continued happiness and flourishing of communities and social orders.

Readers – Smith specialists or otherwise – who find themselves following such or similar paths are always very welcome to write me directly if they would like to pursue further any of the positions taken or themes discussed in this book: ryan.hanley@marquette.edu.