The Puzzle of Adam Smith’s Conception of Man

During the first hundred years, the German reception of Smith’s Wealth of Nations was very widespread but not without questions and critic. When with the German industrialization the so called Katheder Socialists of the younger historical school went mainstream, Smith’s seemingly liberal positions were seen as antisocial and outdated. Knies saw the misinterpretation, and with August Oncken, the contradiction between the Theory of moral sentiments and the Wealth of Nations would be defined as “Adam Smith Problem.” The many approaches to solve this problem that were since discussed rest on the abstract definition of functional differences between an economical and a moral sphere. This is unsatisfying. The solution, which is presented here, goes back into the historical time and looks at the court society, which was Smith’s surrounding world. This society was the breeding place of a new psychic element, which by Smith was called sometimes “the impartial spectator,” sometimes “the inner judge,” and by Freud the superego. The studies of Norbert Elias on the life circumstances of the reigning class of that society make that clear.