Abstract

This study of Sophie de Grouchy's translation of Adam Smith's Theory of moral sentiments {Lettres sur la sympathie, 1798) asks whether the Scottish Enlightenment helped to elaborate the Revolutionary notion of fraternité. It analyses the problems Sophie de Grouchy encountered in translating Smith's notion of sympathy in the light of the criticisms she made of Smith's discussion of sympathy in the introduction to her translation, and finally comments on the only occurrence of the word fraternité to be found in the translation.