Chapter 2 translator's preface

Adam Smith (1723-1790) was not only a master of economics, but also an outstanding ethicist.He has been engaged in academic research all his life, leaving behind two masterpieces - "A Study of the Nature and Causes of National Wealth" (hereinafter referred to as "The Wealth of Nations") and "The Wealth of Nations".The classical economic system of "enriching the country and enriching the people" established by him in "The Wealth of Nations" has been well known in the ideological and theoretical circles of our country, but the ethical thought that he expounded in "The Wealth of Nations" with the goal of "citizens' happy life" is very different. It has rarely attracted the attention of the ideological and theoretical circles in our country; especially the relationship between these two works has not been correctly understood by people for a long time.As early as the middle of the 19th century, economists of the German Historical School raised the so-called "Adam Smith problem", that is, the contrast between "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" and "The Wealth of Nations" was very different and contradictory.They believe that Smith attributed people's behavior to sympathy in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, but attributed people's behavior to selfishness in The Wealth of Nations.They said that Smith used sympathy as the basis of social behavior in The Wealth of Nations, and in The Wealth of Nations, due to the influence of French "materialist" thinkers, he shifted from altruistic theory to self-interest theory.Since then, almost all treatises on Adam Smith's writings and thoughts regard Smith as an altruist in ethics and an egoist in economics.This point of view seems to have become the traditional "creed" of studying Adam Smith.For example, the "History of Political Economy" written by Luxembe, which is very popular in our country, believes that Smith's "starting point for studying the moral world is sympathy", while "the starting point for his researching the economic world" is "self-interest". doctrine".This so-called "Adam Smith problem" is actually due to a misunderstanding of Smith's works, especially the misunderstanding of Adam Smith.

Here, I will only give an overview of Smith's life and creation, revision and reprint, and the relationship between "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" and "The Wealth of Nations", that is, the so-called "Adam Smith problem". 1. The Creation and Revision of Smith's Life and Reprint On June 5, 1723, Adam Smith was born in Cockaldy, Fife, Scotland.His father, an auditor for the local customs house, died a few months before Smith was born.The mother was the daughter of a great landowner and lived to the age of 90, dying only 6 years earlier than Smith.Smith lost his father during his lifetime, was weak and sickly in childhood, and had no brothers or sisters. He never married a wife in his life and depended on his mother for life.For as long as 60 years, Smith served his mother filially and repaid her for her upbringing.

Smith received his first education at the Caccaldy Municipal School, which produced a group of outstanding talents under the leadership of the quite prestigious David Miller.The young Smith stood out in school with his love of books and his superhuman memory.Smith spent his primary and secondary school life at Carcaldy.Cockaldi, with a well-developed manufacturing industry and foreign trade, gave Smith a vague understanding of Scottish society. In 1737, Smith entered the University of Glasgow with honors.During his 3 years at the school, he studied Latin, Greek, mathematics and ethics.His favorites at the time were mathematics and natural philosophy, which, however, were not the sciences in which he showed his talents.Hutcheson, an outstanding professor of moral philosophy, left a deep impression on Smith with his profound knowledge and noble personality.Seemingly noticing his talent, Hutcheson introduced the 16-year-old Smith to the philosopher David Hume, who was then writing a Treatise of Human Nature.

In 1740, Smith was recommended to Oxford University as a recipient of the Snell Scholarship.There, he devoted himself to the study of classical works in Latin and Greek, carefully studied the works of great contemporary and ancient thinkers such as "A Treatise of Human Nature", and laid a solid foundation for classical philosophy and contemporary philosophy. In the autumn of 1748 he became a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. Wrote a Lecture on Economics in 1749.In the winter of 1750-1751, a semester of economics was taught. In 1751 he was elected Professor of Logic at the University of Glasgow.From 1752, he succeeded his teacher, Dr. Hutcheson, as professor of moral philosophy at the school until he resigned in 1764.He often recalls these 13 years as being "the most useful and happiest" of his life.This period is an important period for the formation of his academic thought.

In April 1759, Smith published his famous work on ethics under the title.In Smith's day, the term "moral sentiment" was used to describe the incomprehensible capacity of man (conceived as an instinctively selfish animal) to make judgments that restrain self-interest.In Smith, it is to clarify how an individual with an egoistic nature can control his feelings or behaviors, especially selfish feelings or behaviors, and how to establish a society where it is necessary to establish a code of conduct. After publication, Adam Smith's last four years of academic research in Glasgow developed in two emphases.First, continue to study ethical and moral theories in depth.In this regard, he listened to the opinions of some friends who studied philosophy, made major revisions to the book, and published the second edition in 1761.His most valuable revision in this edition was his development of a theory of the impartial spectator, which clearly states that conscience is a product of social relations.Second, he strengthened his research on law and political economy. In 1763, he gave a "Lecture on Law, Police, Revenue and Armament" at the University of Glasgow.In this speech, Smith demonstrated that under the conditions of economic freedom, capitalist economic relations can quickly promote the accumulation of wealth, and around this center, he initially analyzed the basic problems of British economic life at that time, and expounded a part of political economy. A series of basic principles, thus determining the general direction of his economic research and the central idea of ​​his economic theory system.Therefore, the basic ideas expounded by Smith in this speech can be regarded as the embryonic form of the classical political economy system he later established in "The Wealth of Nations".

The two works "Lectures on Law, Police, Revenue and Armament" are two important achievements of Adam Smith's academic research during his professorial career. In November 1763, Smith accepted the employment of Charles Townshend, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, and resigned from his position as a university professor. February to October 1766) tour of the Continent.During this period, he visited some important cities in France and Switzerland, inspected the economic, political and social conditions of various places, and carried out extensive academic exchange activities.

From March to August 1764, Smith accompanied the young duke to visit the southern French cities of Toulouse, Bordeaux and Montpellier.During this period, Smith felt relatively empty, so he began to write his economics works on the basis of long-term deliberation and conception, and according to the materials he had accumulated. On July 5, 1764, Smith wrote to Hume in Toulouse: "To pass the time, I have begun to write a book." It's The Wealth of Nations. From October to December 1765, Smith visited Geneva.He observed the Swiss republic system with great interest, and went to Ferney, about 7 kilometers away from Geneva, to meet Voltaire, a famous French Enlightenment thinker, and exchanged views with him on political system issues.

In this trip to the European continent, the most beneficial to Smith was the visit to Paris.During his ten-month stay in Paris (December 1765-October 1766), he met many famous thinkers and statesmen, such as members of the Encyclopedia Diderot, D'Alembert, Condillac, Holbach, Helvetia, Physiocrats Quesnay, Turgot, Nemours, Mirabeau the Elder, etc.In various social occasions such as salons, regular or irregular banquets, and personal interactions, Smith often talked with them about economics, philosophy, literature, politics, etc., and learned a lot of ideological information from them.In terms of economic theory, it was Quesnay and Turgot who had a greater influence on Smith. During his stay in Paris, Smith also consulted Quesnay, Durgot for some of his views on the book "The Wealth of Nations" which he was writing. Ergo and other Physiocrats.

In early November 1766, Smith returned to London from Paris.During his stay in London for half a year, he continued to conduct research on some important issues to be discussed in The Wealth of Nations, including the study of colonial administration, using the rich materials collected in the British Museum that had just been established at that time. In May 1767 he returned to his birthplace, Caccaldy, and for seven years until April 1773 he worked on The Wealth of Nations. In the spring of 1773, Smith took the completed draft to London, intending to submit it to the publisher for publication after slight revision and embellishment. The "Memorandum on Taxation", which is called "a rare book", especially the intensified resistance of the North American colonies to British colonial rule after 1773 and the outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775, aroused his extreme enthusiasm for colonial issues. big concern.For this reason, he was determined to continue his own research and was not in a hurry to publish the book. He spent another 3 years reading materials, continuing to study related issues, and extensively revising and supplementing the first draft.By March 9, 1776, the economics masterpiece "The Wealth of Nations" was finally published.In The Wealth of Nations, Smith created a classical economics system that enriches the country and enriches the people, which has epoch-making significance in the history of economic thought.

In the process of writing "The Wealth of Nations", Smith did not completely abandon the study of ethical and moral theories.Just as Smith returned to Cockalti to concentrate on writing The Wealth of Nations, having gathered relevant materials from France and London, he revised and published a third edition in 1767.In this edition, although there are fewer substantive revisions, there are still considerable changes compared with the second edition.This edition is particularly noteworthy for the fact that he printed for the first time, on pages 437-478, an essay of great talent, "On the Origin of Languages".

In 1774, when The Wealth of Nations was being finalized, Smith revised and published a fourth edition.In this edition, a number of substantive and non-substantive changes have also been made, including some concerning the modernization of the vocabulary. In January 1778, at the recommendation of the Duke of Buckler, Adam Smith was appointed Commissioner of Scottish Customs and Commissioner of Scottish Salt by Prime Minister North.During his two public offices, Smith never stopped his academic research and writing activities.During his first year in office, he used the practical knowledge acquired as Customs and Salt Commissioner to supplement and revise the parts of The Wealth of Nations dealing with public affairs, and published a second edition of the book. In 1781, Smith corrected the imperfect details and published the fifth edition of the book. In 1784, based on the exact information obtained by working as a customs commissioner, Smith discussed in more detail the relevant parts of Scotland's fishery incentive system, chartered and non-chartered companies, and the East India Company, and published the third edition of "The Wealth of Nations" . In 1786, Adam Smith added "Preface and Book Design" to "The Wealth of Nations" and placed it at the beginning of the volume, and published the fourth edition of the book, which was the last version of "The Wealth of Nations" that Smith reviewed during his lifetime. The great achievements of Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" and these two academic masterpieces and their profound influence on social development have added luster to his alma mater, the University of Glasgow.For this reason, the teachers and students of the University of Glasgow elected Smith as the honorary president of the school twice in November 1787 and November 1788 (each time for a one-year term), giving him a very high honor. In order to repay the rewards given to him by the people and realize his ideal "civilized society", Smith eagerly hopes to do more things and write more things.He once told a friend that, in addition to ethics and economics, he planned to write tomes on literature, philosophy, and rhetoric, as well as on law, political theory, and the history of scientific development; A huge theoretical system that systematically clarifies the entire process of this infinite and connected human activity system living in the universe, as well as the operating mechanism of the big machine of human society; Nature and its ultimate purpose, process and form of life.However, he was old and his body was getting weaker and weaker, and it was actually impossible for him to realize all his writing plans.For this reason, he said with deep regret: "I originally planned to write more things, and there are many materials that can be used in my original manuscript, but now it is impossible." In the last years of his life, Smith completed only the revision of the sixth edition. This revision is the largest and most substantial since the book was published in 1759. This is the result of his long-term deliberation. In a letter to Thomas Cadel on March 15, 1788, referring to the revision, Smith said: "I am now busy and absorbed in the additions and corrections of every part" of "the : Added the third chapter of the third chapter of the first volume, "On the Corruption of Moral Sentiment Caused by the Tendency to Admire the Rich and the Great, and to Scorn the Poor and the Little"; rewrote the second and third chapters of the third volume Chapter III, containing further developments in the theory of conscience, the impartial spectator, and the theme of "self-control" in addition to these two chapters; Practical application, especially the discussion of the virtues of prudence, justice, benevolence, and self-control; rewritten the first chapter of the first part of the seventh volume, and gathered together the discussion of the Stoic philosophy scattered in previous editions, and more fully explained the teachings of other related schools, and in the new material in the fourth part of this volume, he further elaborated his views on honesty and deceit.At the beginning of this edition, Smith also added a new preface entitled "Tell the Reader", which briefly introduces the main changes made in this edition, and reiterates why he still retains the last paragraph of the book, which is about writing Desire for writings that spell out general principles of law and government. Since Smith realized that this revision was the final revision of the book, that it would "finalize" the book and make it the most perfect edition, he did it with great care.He wrote to Thomas Cadel on March 15, 1788: "I am a slow, very slow writer, and every piece of work must be written at least six or seven times before I can be satisfied with it." Hence , the revision work proceeded slowly, and the delivery date was much later than expected, being revised only about December 1789, and the new edition was not published until a few months before Smith's death in 1790.The new additions to this edition were "written in great part by Smith's serious illness". This shows how much interest and responsibility the moral principles running through this addition took on Smith. As Dugald Stewart said: "These sublime truths, on leaving the Academy in his youth, first aroused the passions of his genius, and upon which his last spiritual endeavors were directed." Smith died in Edinburgh on July 17, 1790. 2. The relationship with "The Wealth of Nations"——A brief comment on the so-called "Adam Smith problem" The above introduces Smith's life and creation, revision and republication.Next, on this basis, combined with the ethical thoughts expounded in this book, we will talk about our views on the so-called "Adam Smith problem".We believe that there is a close connection between the two masterpieces, "The Wealth of Nations". Although the focus of their discussion is different, they are essentially the same. This consistency is mainly manifested in the following three aspects: (1) From the perspective of the alternate creation and revision of "The Wealth of Nations" and its entire research and writing plan, it is absolutely undeniable that Smith's academic thought system is essentially consistent sex. Above, when discussing the creation, revision and reprinting process of Smith’s Life and Life, we have mentioned that in the lectures on moral philosophy held by Smith at the University of Glasgow from 1752 to 1764, he made full use of the lecture notes he had prepared when he lectured on economics at the University of Edinburgh. And the inspiration and information he got from participating in academic activities such as the Glasgow Economics Club; and "The Wealth of Nations" were created on the basis of his moral philosophy lectures. In April 1759, Smith edited the second part of his Lectures on Moral Philosophy to publish for the first time a work that would have had a major impact on his life.This excellent work explores various fields of relations of production in capitalist society not only from the perspective of what is now called ethics, but also from the perspectives of philosophy, law, psychology and economics.From 1759 to 1774, four different editions were published (first edition 1759, second edition 1761, third edition 1767, fourth edition 1774).In the process of revising the four different editions of the book, Smith again contemplated writing on the fourth part of the Lectures on Moral Philosophy and his 1763 lecture on laws, police, revenues, and armaments given at the University of Glasgow "The Wealth of Nations". The first edition of The Wealth of Nations appeared in 1776. In 1778, he revised and published the second edition of The Wealth of Nations. After the publication of "The Wealth of Nations", Smith did not stop revising the book, and in 1781, he published the fifth edition. After publishing the third and fourth editions of The Wealth of Nations in 1784 and 1786, he finally completed the major revision and publication of the sixth edition in 1790, the last year of his life. From the process of alternate creation, revision and republication with The Wealth of Nations, it can be seen that there is a close relationship between these two works, and they must not be separated arbitrarily or even viewed in opposition. It is obvious that some elements of "The Wealth of Nations" have been absorbed in the sixth edition. The Wealth of Nations and The Wealth of Nations are not only two works alternately created, revised and republished by Smith, but also two organic components of his entire writing plan and academic thought system.What is expounded is mainly ethical and moral issues, and "The Wealth of Nations" is mainly expounded on economic development issues. From the current point of view, these are two different disciplines, the former belongs to ethics, and the latter belongs to economics; but according to In the subject classification in Scottish universities at that time, as well as in Smith's academic thought system, they belonged to the subject of "moral philosophy", and it was not the whole subject, but only two components of the subject.At that time, the discipline of "moral philosophy" in Scotland actually included many disciplines of social science later.The content of this course taught by Smith at the University of Glasgow includes four parts: theology, ethics, law and political science, and the part of political science includes what was called political economy at the time.This huge lecture composed of four interrelated parts constitutes the basis and starting point of Smith's academic thought system. Smith originally planned to study and write the whole content of the discipline of "moral philosophy" in parts, in order to reveal the nature of man as nature and man as society and the ultimate purpose, process and form of life, so as to establish a A vast body of scholarly thought; even in his later years, when it became impossible to carry out his full writing project, he insisted on carrying out the practical parts of what he called "moral philosophy," that is, ethics, law, and political science.A few months before his death in 1790, he wrote in his newly added preface to the sixth edition, The Address to the Reader: "In the last paragraph of the first edition of this book, I have said that I shall In my treatise I endeavor to explain the general principles of law and politics . . . not only of justice, but of the police, public revenues, armaments, and whatever else becomes the object of law. In Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations I have partly This promise has been faithfully fulfilled, at least in matters of the police, state revenue and armaments. I have long planned the part on legal theory... Although I am too old to hope to carry out this great enterprise as I wished, I The project has not been entirely abandoned...and I therefore place here, without change, the passage written 30 years ago." This statement by Smith clearly shows that he regarded The Wealth of Nations as his The continuation of the ideas discussed.Therefore, we cannot think that there is any basic contradiction between these two works. (2) From the analysis of human behavior motives, both "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" and "The Wealth of Nations" start from the self-interested nature of human beings. In , Smith speaks of the motives of the naturally greedy and selfish landowners: "The rich choose only the most costly and pleasing things from the multitude. They consume less than the poor; though their nature Selfish and greedy, though they seek only their own convenience, and though they employ thousands of men to labor for them, for the sole purpose of satisfying their idle and insatiable desires...'.In "The Wealth of Nations", Smith also talked about the motives of the behavior of profit-seeking capitalists.He said: "He who employs his capital to support an industry, with profit as his sole object, will naturally endeavor to make the produce of the industry which he employs his capital support the greatest possible value, that is to say, exchange for the greatest quantity of currency or other goods." In Smith's view, personal interests are the starting point for people to engage in economic activities; and those who engage in economic activities based on self-interest are the "economic man" (mainly referring to capitalists) assumed by Smith.Just because Smith regards egoism as the basis for the activities of "economic man", some researchers in the West regard Smith as a classical The main representative of economics, in turn, sees him as a theorist who believes in "survival of the fittest" and is dominated by cash transactions and brutal competition. Of course, Smith himself denied this claim.He called this kind of egoism based on personal interests "Self-Love" (Self-Love).He pointed out that the motives governing human behavior include self-love, sympathy, the desire to pursue freedom, a sense of justice, labor habits, and the tendency to exchange; people's self-love nature is accompanied by sympathy, but people are instinctively selfish They always pursue their own interests under the guidance of self-love, which prevents the full development of sympathy.He also affirmed the social role of self-interest. He believes that "self-love" is a virtue of human beings, and it must not be confused with "selfishness".He regards the "self-love" of people pursuing their own interests as a necessary condition for all economic activities.In "The Wealth of Nations", Smith started from the egoism of this "economic man" activity, and discussed the reasons why human beings indulge in "the pursuit of wealth".In his opinion, there are two main reasons: First, human nature is obsessed with invention, improvement and innovation.Smith attributed the motive of people's pursuit of wealth to the relationship between man and nature.He believes that "economic man" is born with a creative desire and innovative ability, which drives him to carry out economic activities and increase wealth.Smith used the example of some people who are not strict about the accuracy of time, but are very picky about the accuracy of watch timing, to demonstrate that people are born with creativity, or "fascination" for invention, improvement and innovation.Smith believes that it is this "fascination" that arouses people's enthusiasm for hard work and encourages human beings to create material and spiritual civilization.He wrote in: "It is probable that nature deceives us in this way. It is this deceit that constantly arouses and maintains the motives of human industry. It is this deception that first caused man to cultivate the land, build houses, and found cities. China and the country have made discoveries and advances in all fields of science and art. These sciences and arts have improved the living standards of human beings and made them more colorful; they have completely changed the appearance of the world, turning the virgin forests of nature into The plains suitable for cultivation turn the sleepy and desolate sea into a new storehouse of grain and a road leading to every country on the continent." Smith's discussion of people's pursuit of gain is found in his "The Wealth of Nations" Accept it as a kind of common sense and develop it. Second, working "extremely" in pursuit of wealth is out of the need to achieve and maintain his social status. In Smith's view, people need the sympathy of their peers, and the sympathy of their peers tends to sympathize with their own happiness rather than their sorrows. Therefore, in front of onlookers, everyone regards boasting of wealth and concealing poverty as motives.He said: "According to what we call the great end of life, the interest of improving our conditions", it is "to be noticed, to be cared for, to be sympathized with, to be complacent and to command approval".He believed that the necessities of people's physical needs "can be satisfied by the wages of the lowest laborer", and the reason why they desperately pursue wealth is due to "vanity rather than comfort or happiness".He said: "The rich man takes pride in being rich because he feels that his wealth automatically draws attention to him. . . . . but it is supposed to make the great man an object of envy, and to compensate for all the toil, anxiety, and renunciation of desires which the pursuit of such a position necessarily entails"; in order to acquire it, Rather lose "every assurance of leisure, comfort, and carelessness." From these expositions of Smith, it can be seen that he actually studied the motives of people's pursuit of wealth from the perspective of the relationship between people; but he attributed the motives of human economic activities to moral and emotional factors. Deviating his research from the right track.This is a reflection of Smith's class limitations.Although the analysis of economic factors was emphasized in "The Wealth of Nations", these weaknesses were overcome to a certain extent, but they are very obvious in "The Wealth of Nations".In Smith's view, only capitalist production relations are reasonable and perfect. Therefore, he described the "economic man" (mainly referring to capitalists) personified by capitalist production relations as being full of "compassion" and possessing various virtues. people. In any case, the starting point of Smith's demonstration of "economic man" in "The Wealth of Nations" is the same and consistent, that is, they all start from the nature of human egoism.For example, he wrote in "There is no doubt that every human being is born with his first and chief concern for himself".He regards improving his own living conditions as "the great goal of life".This argument developed into the famous statement expressing the motivation of self-interested behavior in "The Wealth of Nations": "It is not from the benevolence of butcher, brewer, or baker that we need food and drink every day, but from their self-interest. plan." It can be seen that although the two works and "The Wealth of Nations" are different in the tone of the discussion, the scope of the discussion, the formulation of the details, and the emphasis, such as the control of self-interested behavior, they rely heavily on Compassion and a sense of justice, and in "The Wealth of Nations" hope for a competitive mechanism; but the discussion of the motivation for self-interested behavior is essentially the same. In the novel, Smith regards "sympathy" as the core of moral judgment, but it is another matter entirely as the motivation of behavior.He admits that there are motives for action, not only motives for action in general, but motives for good actions.These motives include self-love, which is self-interest as opposed to "selfishness" as the beginning of The Wealth of Nations speaks.He uses the word "selfish" in a disparaging sense, comparing "selfishness" with "greed" and praising "a concern for our own personal happiness and interests." In Smith's day, the phrase "moral sentiment" was used to describe the incomprehensible capacity of man (conceived as an instinctively selfish animal) to judge and restrain self-interest.Therefore, what Smith tried to prove is: How does an individual with egoistic nature (mainly referring to a profit-seeking capitalist) control his feelings and behaviors, especially selfish feelings and behaviors, in capitalist production relations and social relations , and thus regularly act for the establishment of a society in which it is necessary to establish a code of conduct. The economic theory system established by Smith in "The Wealth of Nations" is based on these expositions. (3) The organic connection with "The Wealth of Nations" is also concentrated in Smith's unified discussion of the "invisible hand". Smith's discussion of self-interest places great emphasis on the role of the "invisible hand". "An Invisible Hand" This famous phrase appears once each in The Wealth of Nations and The Wealth of Nations.In , he writes that the rich employ thousands of men to labor for them in order to gratify their insatiable desires, "but they still share with the poor the fruits of every improvement they make, and are guided by an invisible hand to the necessities of life By distributing almost as much as the land would have done if it had been equally distributed to all the inhabitants, the interest of the community was unknowingly enhanced, and the means of subsistence provided for an ever-increasing population." This "invisible hand" has been described as the pursuit of wealth or the desire to acquire it.This desire for acquisition starts from self-interest such as the heart of honor and disgrace, and is driven by people's personal feelings and hobbies. However, when people pursue narrow private goals under the guidance of this "invisible hand", they do not The larger social purpose of enhancing human welfare is being achieved unexpectedly.In "The Wealth of Nations", Smith said that those who use capital to support industry usually neither intend to promote the public interest, nor do they know how far they can promote it. And on this occasion, "as on so many other occasions, he is directed by an invisible hand to endeavor to achieve an end which he did not intend to achieve, nor does he do justice to society because it is not what he intended. Harmful. His pursuit of his own interest often enables him to promote the interest of society more effectively than he really intends to do." Here the "invisible hand" is used metaphorically to illustrate the beneficial consequences of the competitive process of.However, in the novel, this "invisible hand" is used to illustrate another issue, that is, how the desire to acquire wealth itself can achieve the greater social purpose of promoting human welfare.It can be seen that the "invisible hand" plays a more basic role in "The Wealth of Nations" than in "The Wealth of Nations". In Smith's view, people engage in economic activities based on personal interests, and under the guidance of the "invisible hand", the pursuit of personal interests will definitely promote social prosperity.Social interests are based on individual interests.Smith's theory reflected the requirements of capitalist economic development at that time. He tried to use the "economic connection" between people to attack the irrationality of feudalism's super-economic coercion.At the same time, it is precisely because of the existence and function of the "invisible hand" that the social economy has reached a "natural balance".Therefore, some western scholars believe that Smith was an early practitioner of cybernetic thought. While discussing the "natural balance" of social economy through the "invisible hand", Smith also discussed the idea of ​​achieving human social and political balance through the "invisible hand".Smith believed that in the real world, there is not only the problem of coordinating the economic interests of different people, but also the problem of coordinating the political values ​​of different people.In the third chapter of the second volume, he first pointed out that in the society where people can live happily, the Greek feelings-love, friendship and gratitude predominate; How does society continue to exist?On the surface he acknowledges the existence of God.He said that the administration of the great system of the universe, the concern for the general happiness of all rational and sensuous beings, is the business of God and not of man.In fact, he demonstrated the role of the "invisible hand" in political balance based on the existence of God and people "cooperating with God and doing their best to promote God's intentions".He clearly pointed out that human society, even if it lacks Greek-style affection, can, through the establishment of social laws, "can exist among different people as it exists among different merchants, without love or affection for each other. and, though in this society no one is under any obligation, or obliged, to be grateful to another, the society may still be maintained, according to a unified valuation, by reciprocal acts which are entirely utilitarian. ’” Here Smith illustrated his political views through the reality of a mutually beneficial exchange.He firmly believes that there is also an "invisible hand" in the political life of human society.Although he apparently admitted the existence of God, he actually denied that religious principles are the only proper motives for human behavior.He said: "On the big chessboard of human society, each chess piece has its own principle of action."This principle is the principle of egoism emphasized by Smith.而且，社会法规正是作为那只“看不见的手”的具体表现，使不同利益的人得以和平共处，达到人类社会政治生活的平衡。 从以上的简要分析可以看出，“看不见的手”是一种对从利己出发的活动进行调节、从而使私利与公益协调的力量。这种力量在经济生活中表现为经济规律， 在政治生活中表现为社会法规；它的作用是实现经济均衡、政治均衡。这种思想， 可以说是一种早期的控制论思想和社会均衡思想。 总之，和《国富论》这两杰出著作在本质上是一致的。无论是对其学术思想体系和对人的行为动机的分析，还是对那只“看不见的手”的论述，都涉及人的本性是利己的。因此，所谓“亚当斯密问题”实际上是由于误解其著作而产生的。那种把他看成在中“研究道德世界的出发点是同情心”，在《国富论》中“研究经济世界的出发点是利己主义”的观点，不仅割裂这两部著作之间的有机联系，而且曲解了斯密的学术思想体系。