A New Individualist Basis for the Free Market

In [ancient moral] philosophy the duties of human life were treated of as subservient to the happiness and perfection of human life. … In the ancient philosophy the perfection of virtue was represented as necessarily productive to the person who possessed it, of the most perfect happiness in this life. In the modern philosophy it was frequently represented as almost always inconsistent with any degree of happiness in this life, and heaven was to be earned by penance and mortification…not by the liberal, generous, and spirited conduct of a man. …By far the most important of all the different branches of philosophy became in this manner by far the most corrupted. (Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations)