The Canon in the History of Economics Critical Essays

The construction and the role of the economic canon, the accepted list of great works and great authors, has been the subject of much recent literary and historical debate. By contrast, the concept of the canon has been largely dormant in the study of the history of economics, with the canonical sequence of Smith, Ricardo, Marx, etc. constituting the skeleton for most teaching and research. This important collection represents the first critical attempt at exploring and defining the relationship between the canon and the construction of the history of economics.

Introduction: the canon in the history of economics and its critique Michalis Psalidopoulos 1. The Mediterranean trajectory of Aristotle's economic canon Louis Baeck 2. The idea of usury in Patriastic literature Thomas Moser 3. Self-interest as an acceptable mode of human behaviour Arlid Saether 4. Deconstructing the canonical view on Adam Smith: a new look at the principles of economics Jan Peil 5. The 'canonical' model of economic growth in the debate Between Ricardo and Malthus Terenzio Maccabelli 6. In defence of a traditional canon: a comparison of Ricardo and Rau Peter Rosner 7. Cracking the canon: William Stanley Jevons and the deconstruction of 'Ricardo' Bert Mosselmans 8. Who blushes at the name: John Kells Ingram and minor literature Terrence McDonough 9. In search of a canonical history of macroeconomics in the interwar period: Haberler's Prosperity and Depression revisited Mauro Boianovsky 10. Preobrazhensky and the theory of economic development Michalis Hatziprokopiou and Kostas Velentzas 11. Canon and heresy: religion as a way of telling the story of economics Albert Arouh 12. The neo-classical synthesis in the Netherlands: a demand and supply analysis Henk W. Plasmeijer and Evert Schoorl

Michalis Psalidopoulos