Abstract

Jim McClellan and Karin Brown

Sophie de Grouchy’s Translation of TMS

In 1797 Sophie de Grouchy (1764-1822), the widow of the Marquis de Condorcet, translated Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments into French. Representing her critical response to Smith's work,  de Grouchy appended eight "Lettres sur la sympathie." We outline de Grouchy's life and her place in the literature, and we present her main differences with Smith, notably regarding the origin of sympathy, reason and sentiment as the basis for morality, and the role of sympathy and the importance of human relations in social and political theory.