ABOUT THIS BOOK
References to the economy are ubiquitous in modern life, and virtually every facet of human activity has capitulated to market mechanisms. In the early modern period, however, there was no common perception of the economy, and discourses on money, trade, and commerce treated economic phenomena as properties of physical nature. Only in the early nineteenth century did economists begin to posit and identify the economy as a distinct object, divorcing it from natural processes and attaching it exclusively to human laws and agency.
In The Natural Origins of Economics, Margaret Schabas traces the emergence and transformation of economics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from a natural to a social science. Focusing on the works of several prominent economists—David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill—Schabas examines their conceptual debt to natural science and thus locates the evolution of economic ideas within the history of science. An ambitious study, The Natural Origins of Economics will be of interest to economists, historians, and philosophers alike.
REVIEWS
"Fascinating. . . . . A wide-ranging and challenging book that can be read profitably both by economists and a wider spectrum of readers interested in the history of science."
— David Thorsby, Times Literary Supplement
"Schabas is a gifted writer tackling a dense and difficult subject.She ably packs a sufficient history of economic thought to make her point into less than 160 pages of text.The more than thirty pages of references . . . aptly documents the depth of the echolarship supporting the book."
— Andrew P. Morriss, Books & Culture
"It will no longer be possible for historians to discuss early modern economic thought as if the economic domain were autonomous. . . . [The book] proposes a host of fascinating connections between nature and economy, material to awaken our curiosity and to disturb the neat categories we often like to impose on the knowledge of the past."
— Theodore M. Porter, Nuncius
“This is an essential book for anyone who is interested in understanding the dominant role that the discipline of economics is playing in our current world order. Through her meticulous historical reconstruction, Schabas shows how economists came to see themselves as agents in a human order that they might change for the better, rather than as mere observers of immutable natural laws. In the process, as she also shows, the philosophical ideas of Utilitarianism came to be embedded within the ‘scientific’ discourse of economics, where their controversial normative content escaped people’s notice, as it often still does today. Anyone who wants to challenge this powerful framework needs to begin by understanding it, and Schabas is an exhilarating guide.”--Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago
— Martha Nussbaum
"[The book] tells a convincing story about theories of price and value. . . . All the chapters are lucidly written, candidly argued, and illuminating."
— Ted Underwood, Eighteenth-Century Life
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Before “the Economy” - Margaret Schabas
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226735719.003.0001
[economics, denaturalization, economic order, scientific ideas, economic theorizing, economic conditions, Michel Foucault, The Order of Things]
This chapter discusses the natural origins of economics and proposes the thesis of the denaturalization of the economic order. It evaluates the claims of leading classical economists in relation to the scientific ideas and practices of their time and discusses the observations of historical inquiries that often disclose a fair degree of autonomy between economic theorizing and the economic conditions experienced by the theorist. This chapter argues that the claim that the concept of an economy is effectively a post-Enlightenment one can be found Michel Foucault'sThe Order of Things. (pages 1 - 21)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Related Themes in the Natural Sciences - Margaret Schabas
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226735719.003.0002
[economics, natural philosophers, experimental physics, natural history, Carl Linnaeus, economy of nature, commercial expansion]
This chapter traces the evolution of the concept of economics from among natural philosophers. It suggests that it was essentially experimental physics and natural history and not mathematical physics that were incorporated into the content of classical economics. This chapter also highlights the achievement of Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in producing a developed account of the economy of nature and his intention to utilize natural history for commercial expansion. (pages 22 - 41)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
French Economics in the Enlightenment - Margaret Schabas
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226735719.003.0003
[French thinkers, economics, Francois Quesnay, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, economic phenomena, French economics, A. A. Cournot, Léon Walras]
This chapter examines the contribution of French thinkers in the development of the concept of economics. It highlights the work of Francois Quesnay and Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot in establishing the linkages between natural and economic phenomena and describes some of the subsequent development in French economics. This chapter suggests that the most influential French contributors to economics were A. A. Cournot and Léon Walras despite their failure to gain an audience among economists until the end of their careers. (pages 42 - 57)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Hume's Political Economy - Margaret Schabas
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226735719.003.0004
[David Hume, political economy, natural realm, natural philosophy, economic thought, moral philosophy]
This chapter examines the contribution of Enlightenment philosopher David Hume to the development of the concept of political economy. It explains that though Hume's primary focus was directed toward human nature the broader framework of his inquiry was the natural realm. Also his knowledge of natural philosophy seeped into his moral philosophy and, more specifically, his political economy. This chapter also shows that Hume was well acquainted with natural philosophy and that there are aspects of his economic thought that reflect that knowledge. (pages 58 - 78)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Smith's Debts to Nature - Margaret Schabas
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226735719.003.0005
[Adam Smith, natural philosophy, scientific knowledge, economics, labor, markets, pursuit of wealth]
This chapter provides evidence to show Adam Smith's indebtedness to the concepts rather than the methods of early modern natural philosophy. It discusses Smith's use of scientific knowledge as well as his use of the terms nature and natural and identifies the topics in Smith's economics which are based on nature, including labor, markets and the pursuit of wealth. This chapter also highlights the fact that Smith did not view himself as an economist and that he was a professor of logic and moral philosophy with a wide range of interests. (pages 79 - 101)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Classical Political Economy in Its Heyday - Margaret Schabas
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226735719.003.0006
[English economists, political economy, natural philosophy, David Ricardo, Thomas Robert Malthus, Nassau Senior, John Ramsey McCulloch, human institutions, economic phenomena, human nature]
This chapter examines the works of several English economists and shows how their theories about political economy are indebted to natural philosophy. These include the works of David Ricardo, Thomas Robert Malthus, Nassau Senior and John Ramsey McCulloch. This chapter argues that there was a gradual shift toward the role of human institutions as the point of origin for economic phenomena and that commitment to providing a detailed account of human nature and of wealth as a natural phenomena had waned considerably. (pages 102 - 124)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Mill and the Early Neoclassical Economists - Margaret Schabas
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226735719.003.0007
[John Stuart Mill, nature, political economy, physical sciences, On the Definition of Political Economy, economic production, physical nature, Principles of Political Economy]
This chapter examines John Stuart Mill's conception of nature and its implications for his political economy. It explains that in his 1836 “On the Definition of Political Economy” Mills addressed the problem of demarcating political economy from the physical sciences and suggested that the study of subjects such as physiology, chemistry, mechanics, and geology is important to the study of economic production. This chapter also describes how Mill aligned his concept of economic production with the concept of physical nature in his Principles of Political Economy. (pages 125 - 141)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Denaturalizing the Economic Order - Margaret Schabas
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226735719.003.0008
[economics, neoclassical period, Darwinian biology, English economists, William Stanley Jevons, Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, Philip Henry Wicksteed, Alfred Marshall, nature, psychology]
This chapter offers some evaluations of works about economics during the early neoclassical period. It describes how Darwinian biology shaped the content or even the broader context of early neoclassical economics and discusses the emergence of a new movement in the field of psychology during this period. This chapter also analyzes the works of some English economists including William Stanley Jevons, Francis Ysidro Edgeworth, Philip Henry Wicksteed, and Alfred Marshall and suggests that they brought about a significant rupture with the past in connection with the relation between economics and nature. (pages 142 - 158)
This chapter is available at:
https://academic.oup.com/chica...
Notes
References
Index
