One often hears the argument that Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments provides a basis for the construction of a morality independent of a religion based on revelation. Central to this argument is Smith’s impartial spectator, whose study of human motivation through observation of the...

The methodological debate between Frank Knight and Terence Hutchison is usually framed in terms of the philosophical debates between positivism and intuitionism, or between empirical knowledge and theoretical knowledge. Hutchison’s The significance and basic postulates of economic theory was,...

In a recent paper (Sharpening Tools in the Workshop, SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1014015), I argued that the Chicago School’s workshop model created an institutional context within which scientific collaboration among faculty and graduate students flourished. The benefit of the workshop...

The social sciences at the University of Chicago are renowned for their leadership in the development of empirical investigation in their respective disciplines. The post-war Chicago School of economics is only the best known of the efforts at the University to entrench specialized competencies...