Reprint of the 1759 edition. Full, Unabridged Text of this landmark work in Western philosophy and economics. The theory of moral sentiments was written by Adam Smith in 1759. It provided the ethical, philosophical, psychological and methodological underpinnings to Smith's later works, including the wealth of Nations (1776), a treatise on public opulence (1764), essays on philosophical subjects (1795), and lectures on justice, police, revenue, and arms (1763). a basic document in the history of Western thought and one of the most important books in the Western canon