In this fictitious conversation Adam Smith (1723-90), who founded the science of political economy, talks to business ethics professor Peter Ulrich through the key passages of his work that his neoliberal interpreters are so fond of (not) quoting.

Epistemic arguments play a significant role in Hayek’s defense of market liberalism. Hisclaim that market competition is a discovery procedure that serves the common good is acase in point. The hypothesis of the markets’ efficient use of existing knowledge issupplemented by the idea that...