front cover of The Natural Origins of Economics
The Natural Origins of Economics
Margaret Schabas
University of Chicago Press, 2005
References to the economy are ubiquitous in modern life, and virtually every facet of human activity has capitulated to market mechanisms. In the early modern period, however, there was no common perception of the economy, and discourses on money, trade, and commerce treated economic phenomena as properties of physical nature. Only in the early nineteenth century did economists begin to posit and identify the economy as a distinct object, divorcing it from natural processes and attaching it exclusively to human laws and agency.

In The Natural Origins of Economics, Margaret Schabas traces the emergence and transformation of economics in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries from a natural to a social science. Focusing on the works of several prominent economists—David Hume, Adam Smith, Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, and John Stuart Mill—Schabas examines their conceptual debt to natural science and thus locates the evolution of economic ideas within the history of science. An ambitious study, The Natural Origins of Economics will be of interest to economists, historians, and philosophers alike.
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Oeconomies in the Age of Newton
2003 Supplement, Volume 35
Margaret Schabas and Neil De Marchi
Duke University Press
While the history of early modern science is well-charted terrain, less has been recorded on the economic thinking of the same period and less still on the intersection of these fields. Addressing this gap in scholarship, Oeconomies in the Age of Newton offers a detailed account of economic concepts of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The volume focuses on “oeconomics”—as “economics” was spelled at that time—which implies a view of economics as shaped by the Greek concept of the household. Examining a range of “oeconomic” curiosities, Oeconomies in the Age of Newton provides intriguing insights into a historical conceptualization of economic relations that differs markedly from the more narrowly defined economics of today.
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front cover of A Philosopher's Economist
A Philosopher's Economist
Hume and the Rise of Capitalism
Margaret Schabas and Carl Wennerlind
University of Chicago Press, 2020
Reconsiders the centrality and legacy of Hume’s economic thought and serves as an important springboard for reflections on the philosophical underpinnings of economics.

Although David Hume’s contributions to philosophy are firmly established, his economics has been largely overlooked. A Philosopher’s Economist offers the definitive account of Hume’s “worldly philosophy” and argues that economics was a central preoccupation of his life and work. Margaret Schabas and Carl Wennerlind show that Hume made important contributions to the science of economics, notably on money, trade, and public finance.  Hume’s astute understanding of human behavior provided an important foundation for his economics and proved essential to his analysis of the ethical and political dimensions of capitalism. Hume also linked his economic theory with policy recommendations and sought to influence people in power. While in favor of the modern commercial world, believing that it had and would continue to raise standards of living, promote peaceful relations, and foster moral refinement, Hume was not an unqualified enthusiast. He recognized many of the underlying injustices of capitalism, its tendencies to promote avarice and inequality, as well as its potential for political instability and absolutism.
 
Hume’s imprint on modern economics is profound and far-reaching, whether through his close friend Adam Smith or later admirers such as John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek. Schabas and Wennerlind’s book compels us to reconsider the centrality and legacy of Hume’s economic thought—for both his time and ours—and thus serves as an important springboard for reflections on the philosophical underpinnings of economics.
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