Abstract
The current paper aims at locating political economy in Adam Smith’s moral philosophy, in particular, its detachment from jurisprudence. It advocates that the basis for this separation is to be founded in Smith’s typology of passions, presented in the Theory of Moral Sentiments. The sociable, the selfish and the unsociable passions all beget a particular kind of social interaction, which is regulated by a different virtue, respectively, beneficence, prudence and justice. Two of these series appear as the object of two different sciences, namely, natural jurisprudence and political economy.
Keywords:
Political economy; Jurisprudence; Passions; Virtue