Abstract

Most of us value the legacy of the Enlightenment, but today we often worry about the conceptual and temporal stability of its core ideals. Griswold presents Smith as having something to say to these concerns, particularly in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which, according to Griswold in chapter 1, is not an exercise in detached philosophical analysis but a piece of rhetoric designed for moral influence on the reader. Smith means, by treating virtue in the manner of a theater critic discussing drama, to help his readers realize and sustain an Enlightenment model of the virtuous life.