Adam Smith between Political Economy and Economics

Robert Urquhart

Chapter 8 in Economics as Worldly Philosophy, 1993, pp 189-240 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Robert Heilbroner, in his essay ‘Behind the Veil of Economics’1 takes up a fundamental issue — individual motivation and its relation to economic agency. In particular, he explores the psychological underpinnings of exchange behaviour, seeking to understand both how such behaviour contributes to economic order, and how it may be problematic from the standpoint of the ordinary precepts of self-identity and motivation. If one considers, in general terms, what its subject matter requires of economic theory, this hardly seems an unusual inquiry. In the actual practice of economists, however, it is. For the issue has, for the most part, either been ignored, or sidestepped through a priori assumptions. The value of Heilbroner’s work in this, as in other instances, lies both in his insistence on the existence of a problem for economics, and in his willingness to draw on other disciplines, when the existing resources of economics prove deficient.

Keywords: Political Economy; Human Nature; External Object; Classical View; Economic Thought (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1993
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-22572-9_8

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