《道德情操论》不只是一本伦理学著作，是集心理学、社会学、伦理学和哲学等于一体的巨著，不仅对人类丰富多彩的情感世界作了详尽阐释，而且对人生的诸多命题也有深刻诠释。
亚当·斯密以“同情（Sympathy，即同理心）”为主线，对正义、仁慈、良心、责任、克己、功过、效用、善恶、美丑、德性、社会福祉和人性等进行了系统而辩证的剖析，完整地构架了他的道德伦理体系。
本书文辞典雅而思想深邃，自1759年出版以来好评如潮，对欧洲社会影响深远，堪称西方世界的“论语”，是市场经济良性运行的“圣经”。

亚当·斯密（1723-1790），英国苏格兰哲学家和经济学家。斯密是英国古典经济学体系的创立者、举世公认的现代经济学之父，同时他也是苏格兰启蒙运动的重要人物之一。他奉献了两部传世经典：《道德情操论》和《国富论》（又名《国民财富的性质和原因的研究》）。他一生大部分心血都倾注在《道德情操论》的修订上，从1759年首版到去世，他对《道德情操论》先后进行了6次修订，正是在修改过程中完成了《国富论》，甚至《国富论》首页上还强调“《道德情操论》的作者”。

导读
Part Ⅰ
of the Propriety of Action
Section Ⅰ of the Sense of Propriety
Chap.Ⅰ of Sympathy
Chap.Ⅱ of the Pleasure of mutual Sympathy
Chap.Ⅲ of the manner in which we judge of the
propriety or impropriety of the affections of other men
by their concord or dissonance with our own
Chap.Ⅳ The same subject continued
Chap.Ⅴ of the amiable and respectable virtues
Section Ⅱ of the Degrees of the different Passions which
are consistent with Propriety
Introduction
Chap.Ⅰ of the Passions which take their origin from
thebody
Chap.Ⅱ of those Passions which take their origin
from a particular turn or habit of the Imagination
Chap.Ⅲ of the unsocial Passions
Chap.Ⅳ of the social Passions
Chap.Ⅴ of the selfish Passions
Section Ⅲ of the Effects of Prosperity and Adversity
upon the Judgment of Mankind with regard to the
Propriety of Action；and why it is more easy to obtain
their Approbation in the one state than in the other
Chap.Ⅰ That though our sympathy with sorrow is
generally a more lively sensation than our sympathy
with ioy，it commonly falIs much more short of
the violence of what is naturally felt by the person
principally concerned
Chap.Ⅱ of the origin of Ambition，and of the
distinction of Ranks
Chap.Ⅲ of the corruption of our moral sentiments
which is occasioned by this disposition to admire the
rich and the great，and to despise or neglect persons of
poor and mean condition
……
Part Ⅱ
Part Ⅲ
Part Ⅳ
Part Ⅴ
Part Ⅵ
Part Ⅶ
属于汇编与简释