The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back. I am sure that the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas.
These are the words of John Maynard Keynes, one of the most important economists of the twentieth century. They are quoted by Robert Heilbroner in his book, The Worldly Philosophers, a book which treats the history of economics as the history of "worldly philosophies."
I first read that book when I was in college, majoring in philosophy but looking for more interest in social and political philosophy than I was finding there. The book induced me to take a course in economics, but that principles of economics course did not address the kinds of questions that Heilbroner's book addressed. So I stuck with philosophy and did not again get involved in economics till I was teaching philosophy and my best friend was the economics professor--and he was writing a dissertation on Jeremy Bentham! Maybe there is a "there" there after all, I thought and re-commenced my study of economics.
Return to top
Because of the role that economics courses play in the curriculum of business students, many people think that a philosopher being interested in economics is an anomaly. But surely it is not. Who were the founders and developers of economics? The list reads like a "Who's Who" of important philosophers:
- Adam Smith, whose book An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of the Nations (1776) is the foundational text of the modern discipline of economics, was professor of philosophy. His other major text was A Theory of Moral Sentiments.
- David Hume not only wrote philosophy that is still read by all philosophy students, but also made significent contributions to economics.
- The afore-mentioned Jeremy Bentham, founder of "Utilitarianism," did enough in economics to be worthy of an economics dissertation by my friend.
- John Stuart Mill--also read by all philosophy students--wrote a Principles of Economics text that went through many editions and was a standard text for a good part of the 19th century.
- Finally, Karl Marx was a Ph.D. in philosophy and wrote philosophy that still interests people, while also devoting most of his life to the analysis of economic systems.
The twentieth century saw economics become technical and mathematical and saw philosophy move away from concern with issues practical ethics and of social and political philosophy. Yet the connection between philosophy and economics was not lost.
Return to top
By the end of the century there was a rebirth of interest in "worldly philosophy":
- The journal Philosophy and Economics is currently publishing volume 19.
- In 1971, John Rawls published A Theory of Justice, which played a major role in restimulating philosophers to deal with questions of justice. A central part of his book concerns questions of economic justice and his book was eagerly studied by economists such as Nobel Prize winner James Buchanan.
- In 1974, Robert Nozick, another Harvard University philosopher, published his libertarian Anarchy, State and Utopia, which presented a strong counter-argument to the "liberal" political philosophy of Rawls.
- In 1976, Nobel Prize winner in economics James Meade published his study, The Just Economy.
- Late in the decade, textbook anthologies by John Arthur and William H.Shaw (Justice and Economic Distribution, 1978, second edition 1991) and by Virginia Held (Property, Profits, and Economic Justice, 1980) appeared.
- Philosopher Daniel Hausman published Philosophy of Economics: An Anthology in 1984, second edition 1994, which explored both methodological questions and questions dealing with ethics and justice.
- And in 1996 Hausman along with Michael McPherson published Economic Analysis and Moral Philosophy, which grew out of a review article on that topic they had published in the Journal of Economic Literature.
Thus when we focus this course called "Philosophy and Public Affairs" on the topic of economic justice, there is a good tradition of discussion involving both philosophy and economics on which we can draw.
