… reading sees his view of individuals as interest-maximising agents to whom it is of little import whether their counterparts mutually benefit from their interactions, or whether the agents themselves believe their actions morally appropriate … to Smith than the one we would ascribe to it today). 2 . Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments [ed. Duglad Stewart, London: Henry G. Bohn, 1759] (London: Penguin, 2009). To the historian, of course, it is of no surprise that Smith’s … and therefore judge, our actions. And in our attempt ‘to examine our own conduct as we imagine any other fair and impartial spectator would examine it’, we effectively divide ourselves in two (Smith, TMS , 133-136). On the one hand, we …