in philipson sans smith becomes a social scientist. a brilliant mind trying to understand what institutions are that lead to human happiness and flourishing, combined with the generosity of soul that smith had as a person severely committed to using his discoveries to help remove obstacles to the well being of the common man. it is an inspiring story. i say that in all sincerity. it's skillful telling justifies recommend that you read it. since part of my duty as a commentor is to point out and criticize the fall of a book, i spent some time looking for fault as i worked through phillipson's book. unsigned report i had a hard time finding any. this is partly due to the fact that phillipson's interpretations of smith's ideas are very close to my own, so that is a discovery that is very happy to make. steel for the sake of discussion let me point out a few things, i won't call them criticism, maybe gentle suggestions. first, as a philosopher i feel duty-bound to raise the thorny issue of the so-called is ought problem. this problem, this