Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-5lx2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-31T05:11:33.068Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The “Whig Historian” on Adam Smith: Paul Samuelson's Canonical Classical Model*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Cigdem Kurdas
Cigdem Kurdas
Affiliation:
New York University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Facts, the historian E.H. Carr argued, are like fish in a vast ocean: what one catches to a large extent depends on where one chooses to fish and on the kind of tackle one uses. Professor Paul Samuelson has offered (HES Bulletin, Fall 1987) a prescription for stimulating demand for history of economics. He proposes “that history of economics more purposefully reorient itself toward studying the past from the standpoint of the present state of economic science. To use a pejorative term unpejoratively, I am suggesting Whig Economic History of Economic Analysis.” (Samuelson 1987: 52) Samuelson promises that fishing with the tackle of present-day theory will catch commercially attractive historical fish and illustrates this approach with his own work in history of economics.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , Spring 1988 , pp. 13 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Gee, J.M.A. (1981) “The Origin of Rent in Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations: an Anti-Neoclassical View” History of Political Economy, SpringGoogle Scholar
Heilbroner, Robert L. (1976) “The Paradox of Progress: Decline and Decay in The Wealth of Nations,” Skinner and Wilson (1976)Google Scholar
Hollander, Samuel (1973) The Economics of Adam Smith, Toronto University Press, Toronto.Google Scholar
Hollander, Samuel (1980) “On Professor Samuelson's Canonical Classical Model of Political Economy,” Journal of Economical Literature, June.Google Scholar
Kaldor, Nicholos (1967) Strategic Factors in Economic Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Kaldor, Nicholos (1985) Economics Without Equilibrium, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, New York.Google Scholar
Krugman, Paul R. (1987) “Is Free Trade Passe?” Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, Adolph (1976) “Adam Smith's System of Equilibrium Growth,” Skinner and Wilson (1976).Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Nathan (1960) “Some Institutional Aspects of the Wealth of Nations,” Journal of Political Economy, December.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samuelson, Paul A. (1977), “;A Modern Theorist's Vindication of Adam Smith,” American Economic Review, February.Google Scholar
Samuelson, Paul A. (1978) “The Canonical Classical Model of Political Economy,” Journal of Economic Literature, DecemberGoogle Scholar
Samuelson, Paul A. (1980) “Noise and Signal in Debates Among Classical Economists: A Reply,” Journal of Economic Literature, JuneGoogle Scholar
Samuelson, Paul A. (1987) “Out of the Closet: A Program For the Whig History of Economic Science,” History of Economics Society Bulletin, Fall.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, J.A. (1954) History of Economic Analysis, Oxford University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Skinner, A.S. and Wilson, T. eds. (1976) Essays on Adam Smith, Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam (1976) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Campbell, R.H. and Skinner, A.S. (eds.), Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sraffa, Piero (1960) Production of Commodities By Means of Commodities. Prelude to a Critique of Economic Theory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sylos-Labini, Paolo (1984) The Forces of Econimic Growth and Decline, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass.Google Scholar
West, E.G. (1982) “Ricardo in Historical Perspective,” Canadian Journal of Economics, May.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
YoungAllyn, A. Allyn, A. (1928) “Increasing Returns and Economic Progress,” Economic Journal, December.Google Scholar