This article explores why Smith's work is a turning point in the history of economic thought. The constitution of an economic discourse and the delimitation of the economy sphere are attributed to: i) the specific nature of Smith's moral philosophy; ii) his way of conceiving economic action as...

The debate on the alleged moral and political benefits of infant capitalism - as worked out in the now classical pieces by Louis Dumont, Pierre Rosanvallon and Albert Hirschman - concludes with the identification of a justification for the new order based on its expected positive effects on...

This paper goes through the main classical authors’ positions on the virtues and the limitations of both competition and socialism. The first section retrieves the evolution of socialistic ideas in England until the first half of the nineteenth century, highlighting Owen’s thesis. After...

This paper deals with the debate which opposed Sismondi and the Ricardian economists, in the first half of the nineteenth century, on the equilibrium of markets, the role of competition and the effects of machinery in industrial societies. At the initial section, the main content of Sismondi?s...

This paper analyses J.S. Mill?s conceptions on what would be the proper form of government and the proper scope of State intervention in economic life. It is argued that, for Mill, the answer depended on the type of society in question. In ?backward? societies, in which the population...

The main reasons presented in The Wealth of Nations to advocate the system of economic liberty and reject mercantilism are analysed. These two systems are evaluated considering basically their impact on the annual product, and the degree of liberty and justice they engender. Based on his views...

This paper examines the classical economists’ views on the virtues and limitations of competition contrasted with the projects of socialism existent at the time. The first section retrieves the evolution of socialistic doctrines in England and France until the first half of the nineteenth...

Our goal in this paper is to shed light on a forgotten contribution to Brazilian economic thought, that is Victor Viana's 1922 book Histórico da Formação Econômica do Brasil (Brazilian Economic Formation's Timeline). That book never got a second edition, and is rarely referenced among both...

Chapter 12 of Keynes´ General Theory has concepts and analytical links with strong identification with the ones used by the so-called institutional approaches. This essay emphasises what seems to have been anticipated by Keynes on the research core of institutional economics, mainly based on...

This paper discusses Herbert A. Simon’s conception of rationality in two of its principal general definitions: bounded rationality and procedural rationality. It argues that the latter is the one that better synthesizes the author’s view about rational behavior and that the former fills...