Adam's Fallacy: A Guide to Economic Theology

Adam's Fallacy: A Guide to Economic Theology

by Duncan K. Foley
ISBN-10:
0674027299
ISBN-13:
9780674027299
Pub. Date:
04/30/2008
Publisher:
Harvard University Press
ISBN-10:
0674027299
ISBN-13:
9780674027299
Pub. Date:
04/30/2008
Publisher:
Harvard University Press
Adam's Fallacy: A Guide to Economic Theology

Adam's Fallacy: A Guide to Economic Theology

by Duncan K. Foley
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Overview

This book could be called “The Intelligent Person’s Guide to Economics.” Like Robert Heilbroner’s The Worldly Philosophers, it attempts to explain the core ideas of the great economists, beginning with Adam Smith and ending with Joseph Schumpeter. In between are chapters on Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, the marginalists, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, and Thorstein Veblen. The title expresses Duncan Foley’s belief that economics at its most abstract and interesting level is a speculative philosophical discourse, not a deductive or inductive science. Adam’s fallacy is the attempt to separate the economic sphere of life, in which the pursuit of self-interest is led by the invisible hand of the market to a socially beneficial outcome, from the rest of social life, in which the pursuit of self-interest is morally problematic and has to be weighed against other ends.

Smith and his successors argued that the market and the division of labor that is fostered by it result in tremendous gains in productivity, which lead to a higher standard of living. Yet the market does not address the problem of distribution—that is, how is the gain in wealth to be divided among the classes and members of society? Nor does it address such problems as the long-run well-being of the planet.

Adam’s Fallacy is beautifully written and contains interesting observations and insights on almost every page. It will engage the reader’s thoughts and feelings on the deepest level.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674027299
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 04/30/2008
Pages: 288
Sales rank: 1,146,048
Product dimensions: 5.12(w) x 7.94(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Duncan K. Foley is Leo Model Professor of Economics at The New School for Social Research.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Adam''s Vision

The Division of Labor

The Theory of Value

Capital Accumulation

The Invisible Hand and the State

Smith's Theory of Money

Adam's Fallacy Revisited

2. Gloomy Science

Second Thoughts

Malthus and Population

The Context of Malthus's Essay

Malthus's Postulates

Malthusian Logic

Population and Food since Malthus's Time

Ricardo and the Limits to Growth

Ricardo's Labor Theory of Value

Accumulation and the Stationary State

Ricardo's Views on Machinery

The Political Economy of Poverty

3. The Severest Critic

Historical Materialism

The Commodity and the Theory of Value

Capitalist Exploitation

Accumulation and the Falling Rate of Profit

Primitive Accumulation

The Transition to Socialism

Marx and Proletarian Revolution

Marxist Theory and Social Change

4. On the Margins

Adam's Fallacy Needs New Shoes

Marginalism

Where Do Prices Come From?

Marginalism and Social Welfare

Marginalism and Time

Veblen and Conspicuous Consumption

5. Voices in the Air

John Maynard Keynes

World Capitalism in Keynes's Time

Say's Law and Laissez-Faire

Labor Markets and Unemployment

Expectations and Money

The Fate of Capitalism

Complexity vs. Collectivism

The Prophet of Technology

6. Grand Illusions

Looking in the Mirror

Two-Armed Economists

Escaping Adam's Fallacy

Face to Face with Adam's Curse

Reading Further

Appendix

Demographic Equilibrium

Theories of Money and Prices

Ricardo's Theory of Rent and Accumulation

Decomposition of the Value of Commodities

The Working Day

Index

What People are Saying About This

Adam's Fallacy is a stimulating tour d'horizon of the ideas of the great economists. In clear, accessible prose, Duncan Foley, a noted theorist himself, describes what they wrote and what their work means today, providing an insightful and thought-provoking critique of economics.

Kenneth Arrow

Duncan Foley has written a fair-minded and very well-written history of economic thinking organized by the theme announced in his title. He contends that economic thinking has been dominated by fallacious attempts to separate positive analysis from moral judgment. This leitmotif has enabled him to create a unified presentation, which will be very useful to the general reader. --(Kenneth Arrow, Stanford University)

Stanley Engerman

Adam's Fallacy is a stimulating tour d'horizon of the ideas of the great economists. In clear, accessible prose, Duncan Foley, a noted theorist himself, describes what they wrote and what their work means today, providing an insightful and thought-provoking critique of economics. --(Stanley Engerman, University of Rochester)

Ira Katznelson

This learned and lively book reconnects economics to the complexities and conflicts of politics and society, and powerfully reminds us that there are no fixed, necessary, or inevitable laws that govern markets. By tracing the history of economic thinking as a form of engagement with values and policies, it also thoughtfully beckons us to grasp together the twin challenges of scientific understanding and moral reasoning. --(Ira Katznelson, Columbia University)

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