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I would like to add a few comments about this subject, i.e., the concept of human nature
(and its innate principles) in the works of Smith and Marx.
 
I think it is correct to say that Smith thought of self-interest (or self-love, as he
called it) as an innate passion. He affirms in the TMS, for example, that “every man is,
no doubt, by nature, first and principally recommended to his own care” (II.ii.2.1) and
many times he makes reference to our  “original and selfish feelings”. Of course, this
doesn’t mean that self-love was the unique original passion in the human nature.
Benevolence, compassion, generosity and other passions are also motives for human actions.
But Smith thinks (against the opinion of some of his contemporaries) that self-love may be
the motive of virtuous actions (TMS, VII.ii.3.16).
 
Hume and other Scots (including Smith) adopted the assumption of the existence of constant
and immutable principles of human nature (_passions_ ) in order to explain the differences
between the patterns of _behavior_  in the four stages of history. They recognized that
customs, rules, laws and institutions show a remarkable diversity. These institutions may
vary in different places and at different times, but they thought that this diversity can
only be rendered intelligible because human nature is always the same. The differences in
habits and rules were explained by the different sets of “initial conditions”, which they
called "physical and moral causes" (see Hume's essay on national characters). In this
sense, Smith and Hume were able to state the existence of an immutable human nature and to
affirm simultaneously that patterns of action and institutions change along the historical
stages.
 
On the other side, there is a long controversy about the Marxian concept of human nature.
Some Marxists repudiate this concept (Althusser, for instance) while others suggest that
Marx had a normative and an empirical concept of the human nature. You will find a concise
but useful discussion in the entry on human nature in Bottomore´s Dictionary of Marxist
Thought.
 
Hugo Cerqueira 
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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