The Max U Approach: Prudence-only, or Not Even Prudence? A Smithian Perspective

David Lipka ()

ICER Working Papers from ICER - International Centre for Economic Research

Abstract: McCloskey criticizes Samuelsonian economists for representing human beings in their models by a character she dubs Max U. Max U, she argues, lacks all virtues except for Prudence. The paper explores whether the identity between Max U and Prudence is tenable and whether Samuelsonian economics can be interpreted as a study of Prudence. I juxtapose Max U to the concept of Prudence as it appears in Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS). The reason is twofold: 1) McCloskey assumes stability in the meaning of Prudence from Aristotle to Samuelson and hence any concept of Prudence would work 2) TMS occupies a prominent position in her argument. I attempt to show that utility maximization is a process distinct from practical reasoning underlying the virtue of Prudence and Samuelsonian economics can therefore not be interpreted as a study of Prudence.

Keywords: Max U; Prudence; Moral Sentiments; Adam Smith; D. N. McCloskey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B12 B40 D10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 13 pages
Date: 2012-09
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.biblioecon.unito.it/biblioservizi/RePEc/icr/wp2012/ICERwp09-12.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:icr:wpicer:09-2012

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ICER Working Papers from ICER - International Centre for Economic Research Corso Unione Sovietica, 218bis - 10134 Torino - Italy. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Daniele Pennesi ().