The Worldly Philosophers

A classic exploration of the history of economic thought, profiling the lives and visions of the great economists—from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to John Maynard Keynes—who shaped the modern world's understanding of wealth and social order.

Discover the revolutionary ideas and eccentric lives of the thinkers who invented the modern economic world.

Author: Robert L. Heilbroner

Acknowledgments: Dedicated to the author's teachers. The author acknowledges Joseph Barnes of Simon & Schuster, Frederick Lewis Allen of Harper's, and Professor Adolph Lowe of the New School for Social Research.

1. Define "worldly philosophers" and explain how their ideas evolve from heretical opinions into modern common sense.
2. Contrast the three methods of social survival: Tradition (kinship/caste), Command (authority/whip), and the Market (lure of gain).
3. Identify the "Economic Revolution" as the emergence of a new vision centered on the philosophy of gain.
4. Distinguish between the three primary methods societies use to guard against economic calamity: Tradition, Command, and the Market.
5. Analyze the historical "invention" of the profit motive and the emergence of the "Economic Man."
6. Explain how the Enclosure Movement and the commercialization of land and labor facilitated the rise of the proletariat and the market system.
7. Analyze the shift from Mercantilism to Smith’s labor-centered theory of value and "universal opulence."
8. Explain the dual mechanism of self-interest and competition in achieving market self-regulation.
9. Evaluate the role of the state within a laissez-faire framework and identify the historical limits of Smith's 18th-century vision.
10. Contrast the intellectual approaches of Malthus and Ricardo regarding economic theory and social reality.