How Theory Came to English Classical Economics

William Coleman ()

Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 1996, vol. 43, issue 2, 207-28

Abstract: The theoretical method of English classical economics is traced to the Enlightenment's struggle to resolve the disputes between rationalism and antirationalism. In an attempt to resolve these disputes, many Enlightenment authors sought to unite empiricism with the notion of law-like universe by arguing that economic laws are no more than general facts, apparent from everyday life. This position, by denying that theory had any connection with the hypothetical, the instrumental, or the abstract, blurred the distinction between theory and fact, taught classical economists to see their theorizing as fact, and gave the classical economists license to pursue their theoretical speculations. Copyright 1996 by Scottish Economic Society.

Date: 1996
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