That is the title of my most recent work-in-progress (with Salim Rashid), which we are presenting today (30 June) at a joint session of the History of Economics Society and International Adam Smith Society at the University of Richmond. Below is our introduction:

What is the relationship between Adam Smith’s two great works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations? The so-called Das Adam Smith Problem refers to a possible internal contradiction between the invisible hand of The Wealth of Nations, where Adam Smith the political economist presents a descriptive theory of economics based on self-interest and self-regarding behavior, and the impartial spectator of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, where Smith the moral philosopher develops a normative, pro-social theory of ethics based on sympathy and other-regarding behavior. This supposed tension between ethics and economics–between Smith’s impartial spectator and his invisible hand–has generated an academic literature of Borgesian proportions, and scholars continue to debate whether the perennial Das Adam Smith Problem is really a genuine problem. This work, by contrast, will focus not on the relationship between Smith’s two great works but on the most salient open problems within each one.