This paper discusses Adam Smith’s teaching on the role of metaphors, including the 'invisible hand' metaphor in reply to a paper by Daniel Klein and Brendon Lucas (2011b) (the Authors), responding to my earlier paper (Kennedy 2011a)

This paper analyzes the causes and implications of recent financial crises. Financial crises in general lead to changes in both theory and practice of economics. The paper takes an historical overview. The global consensus of economic theory during the 20th century is discussed. The paper...

Edward O. Wilson has defined consilience as a strong reductionist program in science. This paper proposes an ontological approach to consilience, which allows for an emergentist interpretation. The methodological basis is naturalism, which is defined through some fundamental notions such as the...

In the recent literature on conflict resolution tends to underline negotiation model based on the argument or dialogue. Exchange between different styles of argument some trends have emerged in the rhetoric applied to the law, especially in procedural law. During the last decade researchers have...

In this paper we have presented arguments for simplicity as epistemological criterion of economic research. In particular, have been important aspects that show how the tradition of the theory, to make principle simplicity to represent many empirical data of experience or information, was one of...

The assumption of rationality is central in current economic theory. This hypothesis is the pillar for the creation of the homo economicus of conventional theory. Starting with Adam Smith’s approach to rationality, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion of the main...

The author emphasizes that 2009 must be remembered not only for the 200 birthday of Charles Darwin, but as well as the 250-year anniversary of Adam Smith’s “Theory of Moral Sentiments”. Proceeding from the fact that Darwin as well as Robert Malthus refer to a classical economist, it is...

We explore the conjecture, first hinted at by Peter Minowitz, that Smith deliberately placed his central idea, as represented by the phrase “led by an invisible hand,” at the physical center of his masterworks. The four most significant points developed are as follows: (1) The physical...

In this very casual paper, I reproduce results from the Google Ngram Viewer. The main thrust is to show that around 1880 governmentalization of society and culture began to set in — a great transformation, as Karl Polanyi called it. But that great transformation came as a reaction to...