"The Mysterious Veil of Self-Delusion" in Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments

Abstract

ADAM SMITH'S TREATMENT OF SELF-DECEPTION may be a useful key to his understanding of human nature and his construction of a theory presuming to describe the realities linking morals, the economy, and politics. mysterious veil of self-delusion, he wrote in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, conceals our deformities and prevents us from knowing ourselves fully. is so disagreeable to think ill of ourselves that we often purposely turn away our view from those circumstances which might render that judgment unfavourable (TMS JII.4.4).1 Our good judgment of ourselves is our most crucial concern, and we are most cruelly, yet often unknowingly, subject to error when we are examining ourselves on the point of acting and when we have acted (TMS 111.4.2). I believe he was suggesting that when we act, we are really thinking about how we should lead our lives. It is then that we may be most open to selfdeceit. Do we have the capacity to be our own surgeon[s], to expose self-deceit, this fatal weakness of mankind [that] is the