A History of Scottish Economic Thought

by Dow; Alexander

• ISBN13: 9780415344371
• ISBN10: 0415344379
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-07-24
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Modern economics has at its foundation scholarly contributions from many prominent Scottish thinkers.The History of Scottish Economic Thoughtexamines the roots of this great tradition, places in perspective a selection of authors and assesses their contribution over three centuries in the light of a distinctive Scottish approach to economics. Scottish Enlightenment thought more widely is an established area of research interest. This volume offers new scholarship on key Enlightenment figures; but the emphasis is on the approach to economic thought which developed in that period and continued through to the twentieth century. Smith and Hume may be key figures, but other less familiar authors are also of substantial interest as economic thinkers, and include a murderer, a revolutionary, a medical practitioner and a novelist (John Law, Sir James Stuart, John Rae and Shield Nicholson, respectively). Also included in the volume are discussions of Francis Hutchison, James Mill, J. R. McCullough,Thomas Chalmers and William Smart. The nature of the advances made in this historical development is also highly relevant to modern methodological discussion in economics. The Scottish approach identifies principles of human nature from detailed observation and historical study, but as these principles are manifested in different ways in different contexts there is little scope for laws of economic behavior. The principles, together with a combination of inductive and deductive methods, help us to derive theory suited to particular contexts, with attention paid to the historical, political, social and moral aspects of each context.

Table of Contents

List of contributors	vii
Acknowledgements	x
Introduction	1	(8)
Alexander Dow
Sheila Dow
John Law and the Scottish Enlightenment	9	(18)
Antoin E. Murphy
Francis Hutcheson, 1694--1746	27	(19)
Andrew S. Skinner
David Hume as a political economist	46	(25)
Carl Wennerlind
Sir James Steuart, Principles of Political Oeconomy	71	(31)
Andrew S. Skinner
Adam Smith: real Newtonian	102	(21)
Leonidas Montes
Adam Smith: common sense and aesthetics in the age of experiments	123	(23)
Flavio Comim
James Mill as economist: theory dominated by deductive method	146	(17)
Thomas S. Torrance
John Ramsay McCulloch	163	(15)
D. P. O'Brien
The Place of Thomas Chalmers in Scottish political economy	178	(20)
A. M. C. Waterman
John Rae	198	(15)
Douglas Mair
Economics in the Scottish universities from the late nineteenth century	213	(15)
Alexander Dow
Alan Hutton
A Scottish tradition of applied economics in the twentieth century	228	(17)
Alan Hutton
Postscript	245	(9)
Sheila Dow
Index	254