Economic theory and natural philosophy : the search for the natural laws of the economy /

This provocative work examines the natural law origins of modern economics. Premised on views of society as "mechanism" rather than as "organism" and "process," economic science adopts the models of the natural sciences rather than the methods of history and social theory. Much of the book concentrates on the work of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill and the tension in their work between nature and society, particularly the influence of society on economic institutions. Apart from Alfred Marshall's flirtation with organic conceptions of equilibrium, the natural law triumphs in the marginal utility revolution and the rise of the axiomatic method in modern general equilibrium theory. The author believes a "truly human" social science is possible only if rooted in history and the "conception of society as a process." However, this view depends on a moot value premise, namely, that "outside of society, the individual ceases to be a human being" (p. 28). Our actions, and their meaning "are shaped, molded and to a large degree determined by society and not by nature. . . ." Advanced undergraduate; graduate; faculty. F. Petrella; College of the Holy Cross