The Theory of Moral Sentiments

So, I'm a nerd, and I've been reading Adam Smith. And not like, Wealth of Nations, but rather, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Five pages into reading it and something struck me:

As we have no immediate experinece of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are afflected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation. Though our brother is upon the rack, as long as we ourselvers are at our ease, our senses will nver inform us of what he suffers....

...When we see a stroke aimed, and just ready to fall upon the leg or arm of another person, we naturally shrink and draw back our own leg or our own arm; and when it does fall, we feel it in some measure, and are hurt by it as well as the sufferer. The mob, when they are gazing at a dancer on the slack rope, naturally writhe and twist and balance their own bodies as they see him do, and they feel that they themselves must do if in his situation. Persons of delicate fibres and a weak consitution of body complain, that in looking on the sores and ulcers which are exposed by beggars in the streets, they are apt to feel an itching or uneasy sensation in the corresponding part of their own bodies. ... Men of the most robust make, observe that in looking upon sore eyes they often feel a very sensible soreness in their own..

Get the feeling that life in the16th century was harsh? Like, Alexander Pope harsh? Today, much of the world still lives like this, but not here. Yet the complaining and unhappiness continues.

One of my central assumptions about human nature is that humans cannot be happy. Beyond a threshold level, you can provide them with whatever external environment you like, and they will turn the unhappiness gain up until they return to a fixed un/happiness level. See for instance, Lotto winners. In Abraham Licoln's words, "People are about as happy as they make their minds up to be." Ultimately, this limits the utility of government.

However, this is an upper bound on happiness, and so morality still makes a large difference in our lives. We may not feel better off, but who would really want to trade places? Even with someone from 50 or 100 years ago. Set aside romanticism, and ponder the unmitigated ease with which we navigate our work and traffic in our daily essentials. I think this is the reason Smith wrote his book on this subject in the first place.