A sample of 299 U.S. economics professors, presumably random, responded to our survey which asked favorites in the following areas: Economic thinkers (pre-twentieth century, twentieth century now deceased, living age 60 or older, living under age 60), economics journals, and economics blogs....

This document offers an English translation of remarks that Pierre-Samuel Dupont de Nemours made in 1809, remarks principally about Adam Smith. Dupont suggests repeatedly that Adam Smith fudged some points in The Wealth of Nations, because, says Dupont, Smith “thought that in order to maintain...

Adam Smith’s outlook still inspires and informs modern sensibilities and argumentation. It is of interest beyond Smith aficionados whether a particular line of modern thought “fits” Smith. One important such dispute involves recent “left Smithian” writers who argue that he was more...

In many works Deirdre McCloskey criticizes professional economics for too readily representing man as a maximizing agent—Mr. Maximum Utility, or Max U. McCloskey says that economic activities are not the machinations of robots or mathematical functions, but rather affairs among human beings....

This is a reprinting of excerpts from William Robert Scott’s book Frances Hutcheson: His Life, Teaching and Position in the History of Philosophy (1900). The excerpts are about Hutcheson the man, teacher, mentor, and professor at the University of Glasgow. Adam Smith wrote of him as...

Research in various fields has demonstrated the inadequacy of the Max U image of man. To the extent that the model is responsible for major problems humanity is facing today, it needs to be revised. This note argues that ideas of religions, such as human dignity, personhood, stewardship, and...

What might religion do to improve our understanding of economics and human behavior? Here I contrast the mainstream economics view of choice and behavior with the religious view. In the mainstream economics view, human beings are rational calculating maximizers of utility. In the religious view,...

William Grampp’s JPE article on Adam Smith is creative and provocative. It errs, however, by disparaging the invisible hand’s importance as a symbol of various economic processes that help societies prosper in ways that individuals neither intend nor comprehend. Four specific...

Adam Smith doubted an invisible hand in academia, saying that academia was prone to clubbish foolishness. From economics-department webpages, I collected data on Ph.D. origination of economics faculty. Using a ranking of 200 economics departments world-wide, I find that at the top departments...

Professor Gavin Kennedy’s essay on the invisible hand raises several issues: (1) whether the three occurrences of the phrase in Adam Smith’s writings are reconcilable; (2) whether the phrase may properly serve as tag for an important idea in natural jurisprudence; and (3) the...