Adam Smith and Economic Science

Adam Smith and Economic Science PDF Author: Jan Peil
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Since the celebration of the bicentenary of The Wealth of Nations, the last twenty years have seen a burgeoning interest in Adam Smith's contribution to economics. Jan Peil's book aims to provide a new model for interpreting Smith's contribution to economic science. This model elucidates Smith's vision of the free market economy by placing it in the historical circumstances of the time. In the first part of the book the author discusses how we should read Smith and outlines the new hermeneutical model of interpretation of his economic thought. For example, in reviewing The Wealth of Nations, the author places Smith's work firmly in the context of moral philosophy and the debate on the sense and meaning of the emerging commercial society which was taking place in the 18th century. In discussing Smith's economics, the author clearly focuses on the question: why should we re-read Smith and according to which model of interpretation? Finally, he discusses the relevance of reinterpreting Smith's economics as part of moral philosophy for today's debate on the principles of economics. This innovative book will be of great interest to historians of economic thought and political economy, scholars and students of the philosophy and methodology of economics and all those interested in Adam Smith and his relevance for economics today.

Adam Smith and Economic Science

Adam Smith and Economic Science PDF Author: Jan Peil
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since the celebration of the bicentenary of The Wealth of Nations, the last twenty years have seen a burgeoning interest in Adam Smith's contribution to economics. Jan Peil's book aims to provide a new model for interpreting Smith's contribution to economic science. This model elucidates Smith's vision of the free market economy by placing it in the historical circumstances of the time. In the first part of the book the author discusses how we should read Smith and outlines the new hermeneutical model of interpretation of his economic thought. For example, in reviewing The Wealth of Nations, the author places Smith's work firmly in the context of moral philosophy and the debate on the sense and meaning of the emerging commercial society which was taking place in the 18th century. In discussing Smith's economics, the author clearly focuses on the question: why should we re-read Smith and according to which model of interpretation? Finally, he discusses the relevance of reinterpreting Smith's economics as part of moral philosophy for today's debate on the principles of economics. This innovative book will be of great interest to historians of economic thought and political economy, scholars and students of the philosophy and methodology of economics and all those interested in Adam Smith and his relevance for economics today.

The Science of Wealth

The Science of Wealth PDF Author: Tony Aspromourgos
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134041128
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
This study clarifies the character of 'political economy' as a distinct and separable intellectual discipline in the generic sense, in the texts of Adam Smith. It focuses upon the scope and fundamental conceptualizations of the new science. Smith's conceptualization of economic analysis is shown to constitute a unified intellectual piece for understanding economic society and its dynamics. Smith's fundamental economic language is exhaustively examined, in all his texts, with a view to clarifying the meaning of the basic concepts of his system. As well, the 'prehistories' of those concepts, in literature prior to Smith, back to the earliest times, are quite comprehensively treated, thereby placing his political economy in its larger historical context and conveying a rich sense of the history of these ideas over the whole course of our civilization. A quite complete account of Smith's economics as a whole is also entailed by this undertaking: his key substantive economic doctrines are thoroughly considered as well, and all the elements of his economic theory receive attention. To that extent, notwithstanding the focus on concepts, an interpretation of the substance of Smith's political economy is also provided. This focus is partly motivated by the view that Smith's intellectual triumph in the history of social science is not so much about the success of specific doctrines. His more considerable theoretical success is at a deeper level: gaining a wide and long-lasting acquiescence in the conceptual universe framed by the fundamental structures of his system, for a newly emerging discipline. Those who subsequently contested Smithian doctrine did so within Smith's framework; they did so 'on his terms'. While the book's primary purpose is to reconstruct the character of Smith's political economy as a distinct intellectual enterprise, it also addresses its relevance to modern economics, and to policy and practice in contemporary liberal society.

Self-Interest before Adam Smith

Self-Interest before Adam Smith PDF Author: Pierre Force
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139436996
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Self-Interest before Adam Smith inquires into the foundations of economic theory. It is generally assumed that the birth of modern economic science, marked by the publication of The Wealth of Nations in 1776, was the triumph of the 'selfish hypothesis' (the idea that self-interest is the motive of human action). Yet, as a neo-Epicurean idea, this hypothesis had been a matter of controversy for over a century and Smith opposed it from a neo-Stoic point of view. But how can the Epicurean principles of orthodox economic theory be reconciled with the Stoic principles of Adam Smith's philosophy? Pierre Force shows how Smith's theory refutes the 'selfish hypothesis' and integrates it at the same time. He also explains how Smith appropriated Rousseau's 'republican' critique of modern commercial society, and makes the case that the autonomy of economic science is an unintended consequence of Smith's 'republican' principles.

The Science of Wealth

The Science of Wealth PDF Author: Tony Aspromourgos
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134041136
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
This volume clarifies the character and fundamental structures of ‘political economy’ as an intellectual discipline in the texts of Adam Smith and will be vital reading for historians of economic thought and philosophers of social science.

Economics--Mathematical Politics Or Science of Diminishing Returns?

Economics--Mathematical Politics Or Science of Diminishing Returns? PDF Author: Alexander Rosenberg
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226727240
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
"Economics will never be able to move beyond these vague predictions because it treats human behavior - individual and social - as the product of expectations and preferences - beliefs and desires - the variables that cannot be measured independently of the actual choices we want to predict. These factors, combined with the economist's commitment to the search for equilibrium solutions to theoretical problems, condemn economic theory to permanent predictive weakness. In the end, Rosenberg's analysis is not merely a critique. His aim is to redefine the scope and value of neoclassical theory, suggesting that its character and most important accomplishments need to be correctly understood to defend economics against the charge that it is a science of diminishing returns."--BOOK JACKET.

The Scope and Method of Economic Science

The Scope and Method of Economic Science PDF Author: Henry Sidgwick
Publisher: London : Macmillan and Company
ISBN:
Category : Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description


Adam Smith’s Theory of Value and Distribution

Adam Smith’s Theory of Value and Distribution PDF Author: Jeffrey T. Young
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003831389
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Ever since the time of his early interpreters, beginning with David Hume, Adam Smith’s theory of value has been the subject of confusion and misunderstanding – including a controversy which still rages over whether Smith held a labour theory of value, and, if so, whether he held to it throughout Wealth of Nations, or if it was confined to the “Early and Rude State”? This book provides a close reading of Smith’s key text, and also incorporates material from the other parts of Smith’s oeuvre, especially from The Theory of Moral Sentiments, to yield original and important insights into Smith’s theory of value. The book operates on the assumption that Smith is proposing relatively simple ideas about price and takes a conventional view that simple Supply and Demand models can illuminate, clearly and consistently with his text, his theory of price. Combining these elements, the book argues that, contra Marx, Smith does not have a labour theory of value at all, understood as a theory of the determination of the relative price structure. Instead, Smith is placed squarely in the supply and demand, general equilibrium framework and the claim that he is part of a “surplus tradition”, which receives its highest treatment in the work of Piero Sraffa, is refuted. This book will be of particular interest to Adam Smith specialists, historians of economic thought, and research economists who have an interest in Smith.

Erasing the Invisible Hand

Erasing the Invisible Hand PDF Author: Warren J. Samuels
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781107613164
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This book examines the use, principally in economics, of the concept of the invisible hand, centering on Adam Smith. It interprets the concept as ideology, knowledge, and a linguistic phenomenon. It shows how the principal Chicago School interpretation misperceives and distorts what Smith believed on the economic role of government. The essays further show how Smith was silent as to his intended meaning, using the term to set minds at rest; how the claim that the invisible hand is the foundational concept of economics is repudiated by numerous leading economic theorists; that several dozen identities given the invisible hand renders the term ambiguous and inconclusive; that no such thing as an invisible hand exists; and that calling something an invisible hand adds nothing to knowledge. Finally, the essays show that the leading doctrines purporting to claim an invisible hand for the case for capitalism cannot invoke the term but that other nonnormative invisible hand processes are still useful tools.

Adam Smith’s America

Adam Smith’s America PDF Author: Glory M. Liu
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691240868
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The unlikely story of how Americans canonized Adam Smith as the patron saint of free markets Originally published in 1776, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations was lauded by America’s founders as a landmark work of Enlightenment thinking about national wealth, statecraft, and moral virtue. Today, Smith is one of the most influential icons of economic thought in America. Glory Liu traces how generations of Americans have read, reinterpreted, and weaponized Smith’s ideas, revealing how his popular image as a champion of American-style capitalism and free markets is a historical invention. Drawing on a trove of illuminating archival materials, Liu tells the story of how an unassuming Scottish philosopher captured the American imagination and played a leading role in shaping American economic and political ideas. She shows how Smith became known as the father of political economy in the nineteenth century and was firmly associated with free trade, and how, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the Chicago School of Economics transformed him into the preeminent theorist of self-interest and the miracle of free markets. Liu explores how a new generation of political theorists and public intellectuals has sought to recover Smith’s original intentions and restore his reputation as a moral philosopher. Charting the enduring fascination that this humble philosopher from Scotland has held for American readers over more than two centuries, Adam Smith’s America shows how Smith continues to be a vehicle for articulating perennial moral and political anxieties about modern capitalism.

The Preconceptions of Economic Science

The Preconceptions of Economic Science PDF Author: Thorstein Veblen
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473396182
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
Thorstein Veblen was probably the greatest economist working in early 20th century America. In this treatise, Veblen sets out the preconceptions and uninformed ideas people have when beginning to study the economy, taking each problem and addressing it in turn, hoping to open the readers mind to a better understanding of one of the most difficult and complex problems of the modern world, the economy. We are republishing this work with a brand new short introductory biography of the author.