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Inspired by his lectures on rhetoric and by game theory, we provide a new interpretation of Smith’s system of thought, showing its coherence through the identification, and conjectural history, of three reasoning routines and a meta-reasoning routine throughout his work on languages and rhetoric, moral sentiments, and self-command, and the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. The identification of these reasoning routines allows us to uncover a hitherto poorly understood deep structure of Smith’s work, and to explain its main characteristics. We also trace, in the very Smithian tradition of conjectural history, how these routines emerged in Smith’s early research on the principles of the human mind. While our approach does not explain Smith’s complete oeuvre, it does shed new light on the man and his work. Specifically, our analysis of Smith’s reasoning routines highlights his sophisticated understanding of …