The History of Economic Thought

This course evaluates the development of economic thought through the eyes of Greek, Chinese, Indian and European traditions before exploring economic thought in the context of the 20th century. The course is historical in content and international in perspective allowing students to develop a critical understanding of the influence of evolving economic thought on contemporary global economics. Economic thought has developed over time in a historical context. It can be argued that Economics has always been a philosophy rather than a Science. This is clearly evident from Greek, Chinese and Indian Economic thought. However, in the latter part of the 19th century Mathematics became the dominating force in Economics. This pivotal transformation of a philosophy into a mathematical subject, with the birth of neo-classical economics, had profound consequences for the analysis of the actions and inter-actions of human beings, and for policy debates about the role of the state in regulating national and international markets. Neoclassical economics has emphasised the rational behaviour of self-interested individuals and largely ignored the fact that humans are in essence part of nature, which the philosopher economists of Ancient Greece recognised. In recent years, aspects of economic thought have begun to make use of the insights of biological sciences.