The Theory of Moral Sentiments · Chapter
Of the Selfish Passions explained
Smith examines the 'selfish passions'—grief and joy arising from personal fortune—as a middle category between social and unsocial passions.
What happens
Smith examines the 'selfish passions'—grief and joy arising from personal fortune—as a middle category between social and unsocial passions. He argues that we sympathize more readily with small joys and great sorrows, while envy hinders sympathy with sudden prosperity and trivial griefs provoke ridicule rather than compassion.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This passage marks the dramatic climax because it crystallizes the core psychological crisis: the tension betw…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Sympathy as the Foundation of Moral Judgment
The chapter explores how sympathy operates differently for joy and grief, showing that moral approval depends on the ease or difficulty of entering into another's passion.
- Self-Love and the Social Order
Smith discusses how envy and self-interest shape responses to sudden fortune, and how the upstart's behavior reflects awareness of others' self-love.
Key passages
“The man who, by some sudden revolution of fortune, is lifted up all at once into a condition of life, greatly above what he had formerly lived in, may be assured that the congratulations of his best friends are not all of them perfectly sincere.”
A person who suddenly becomes wealthy or elevated in status should expect that even close friends' congratulations are partly insincere.
Smith highlights the role of envy in limiting sympathy with another's good fortune.
“If the chief part of human happiness arises from the consciousness of being beloved, as I believe it does, those sudden changes of fortune seldom contribute much to happiness.”
Since being loved is central to happiness, abrupt rises in fortune rarely increase happiness because they strain social bonds.
Smith connects happiness to social sympathy rather than material gain.
“Our sympathy, on the contrary, with deep distress, is very strong and very sincere. It is unnecessary to give an instance. We weep even at the feigned representation of a tragedy.”
We genuinely and powerfully sympathize with profound suffering, as shown by our emotional response to tragic performances.
Smith contrasts the strong sympathy for great sorrow with the lack of sympathy for minor grievances.
