Social Research Volume 71 No. 2 : THE WORLDLY PHILOSOPHERS AT FIFTY

	The Worldly Philosophers at Fifty Volume 71 No. 2 (Summer 2004) Arien Mack, Editor William Milberg, Guest Editor

Editor's Note Bob Heilbroner joined the editorial board of Social Research in 1960. When I became editor in 1970 he generously became both my guide and my cheerleader. It is difficult to imagine anyone better suited for those roles. The journal mattered to him, and what mattered most about it, I think, was what it was not, rather than what it was. Social Research was not, despite its misleading title, a standard sociology or social science journal, replete with reports of endless number-crunching studies and surveys. In perhaps much the same way, economics for Bob was not a discipline insulated from the society and culture in which it was embedded. It was because we tried to make Social Research a journal of ideas that Bob cared about it, and the fact that he published in it so often was the best evidence of his caring, since he could have published what he wrote for us in many other places. (A list of his articles in Social Research appears below.) He never missed board meetings and was always ready to think about what the next thematic issue should be and who might be invited to write for it. His range of references was dazzling. The absence of his voice in the recent past has left a void that has been difficult to fill. It seems entirely appropriate that an issue of Social Research be devoted to Bob’s work and to commemorating his book, The Worldly Philosophers, which probably was read by almost every college student in the country for many years. I would like to thank my colleague, Will Milberg, who worked very closely with Bob during his last years at the New School, for suggesting this issue and organizing it. My thanks go as well to all of the authors who have written for this issue. *Arien Mack* *Editor*
Guest Editor's Note This special issue of Social Research celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Robert Heilbroner’s classic work, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. The book, now in its seventh edition, has sold more copies in the United States than any other book on economics, with the exception of Paul Samuelson’s undergraduate text Economics. Heilbroner’s book remains popular because of his wonderfully flowing and accessible writing style and the colorful detail he provides about the lives of the otherwise faceless giants in the history of “the dismal science” of economics. We learn, for example, that Adam Smith, who lived with his mother until she died at 90 and then continued his “bachelor’s life in peace and quiet,” was so absentminded that “on one occasion he descended into his garden clad only in a dressing gown and, falling into reverie, walked fifteen miles before coming to.” Karl Marx was “not an orderly man; his home was a dusty mass of papers piled in careless disarray in the midst of which Marx himself, slovenly dressed, padded about in an eye-stinging haze of tobacco smoke.” And Joseph Alois Schumpeter was a “would-be aristocrat” who lied to friends about his young wife’s background: “when she was away for a year before their marriage, he explained that she was being properly educated in French and Swiss schools. In fact she was earning her living in Paris as a maid” (Heilbroner, 1999: 45, 140, 298). These amusing tidbits might be enough to sell the book to one generation. But The Worldly Philosophers has now inspired several. Its staying power comes from its compelling rendition of the great efforts to understand the dynamics of capitalism. These dynamics include short-run economic fluctuations and long-run tendencies, wealth accumulation and its devastating “side effects” in terms of income inequality, poverty, government corruption, business collusion, industrial concentration, and, finally, the connection between these turbulent dynamics and the social, political, ethical, and technological issues of the day. What bubbles up from the pages of The Worldly Philosophers is the tumultuous evolution of capitalist societies over the past two and one-half centuries, and the creativity of the “great economic thinkers” in capturing these complex dynamics. Moreover, Heilbroner shows that such dramatic narratives are of profound relevance to contemporary society and its prospects for the future. The book has given a sense of purpose and hope to generations of young students of economics. At a recent academic conference session devoted to Heilbroner’s work, a number of audience members--all now professional economists-- spoke of how The Worldly Philosophers had affirmed their feeling that there was more to economics than the dry and politically conservative material they were being fed in textbook form in their college classes. This reaction reflects the multiple layers of The Worldly Philosophers. For all its lightness of style, the book’s subtext is the grand role for economic thought in social progress. Subtext became text in the seventh, and most recent, edition of the book published in 1999, in which Heilbroner added a new and final chapter with the ambiguous title “The End of the Worldly Philosophy?” Heilbroner clearly intended a play on the dual meaning of the word “end”: purpose and termination. Let me consider each of these meanings as I introduce the essays in this special issue of Social Research. The chapter begins with the modest claim that economics is not science and not even theory, but instead an “explanation system” of capitalism. It is notable that Heilbroner resists the notion of theory (we will see why later), but more important is his argument that the substance of economic theory is not individual choice or the study of markets, but capitalism. Capitalism, for Heilbroner, is a socioeconomic system that cannot simply be reduced to markets, but must consider also the acquisitive drive for wealth and the interdependence of the private and public sectors. With this broad and interdisciplinary scope for economic thought, the purpose of worldly philosophy becomes quite grand. A plausible and engaged explanation of capitalism provides also a logic for thinking through scenarios of the future. But the challenge of worldly philosophy is more than the production of accurate predictions. Scenario building has an inherently normative dimension, since thinking through plausible scenarios allows--compels--a reasoned analysis of how society can avoid disastrous outcomes and promote social improvement: [A] worldly philosophy has a unique potential to provide the visionary guidance that will help at least some capitalisms make their way as safely as possible through the coming decades. . . . [T]he purposeful end of the worldly philosophy should be to develop a new awareness of the need for, and the possibilities of, socially as well as economically successful capitalisms (Heilbroner, 1999: 320-321). This grand “end” of economic thought connects also to its methodology. Heilbroner gives two fundamental reasons why economics should not emulate natural science. First, economics deals with human nature and especially human decision making, which is fundamentally different from the interaction of electrons: [H]uman behavior cannot be understood without the concept of volition--the unpredictable capacity to change our minds up to the very last moment. By way of contrast, the elements of nature behave as they do for reasons of which we know only one thing: the particles of physics do not “choose” to behave as they do (Heilbroner, 1999: 317). Thus the reduction of human behavior to utility maximization is both tautological (viewed ex post, every decision is utility-maximizing) and too narrow in its exclusive emphasis on instrumental rationality. The second objection holds that economic theory--even the most sophisticated mathematical model--is inevitably value-laden. Heilbroner writes: [W]hat does it mean to be “objective” about such things as inherited wealth or immiserating poverty? Does it mean that those arrangements reflect some properties of society that must be accepted, just as the scientist accepts the arrangements studied through a telescope or under a microscope? Or does it mean that if we were scrupulously aware of our own private endorsements or rejections of society’s arrangements we could, by applying an appropriate discount, arrive at a truly neutral view? In that case, could one use the word “scientific” to describe our findings, even though the object of study was not a product of nature but of society? The answer is that we cannot. When lecturing on Marx, Heilbroner would often say with amusement that the most contentious word in the title of his book Marxism: For and Against was the innocuous-sounding “and.” Similarly, I would say that the most challenging part of the title of the chapter “The End of the Worldly Philosophy?” is the innocent-looking question mark. The question mark refers to the uncertain future status of economic thought. Would economics be able to regain its place as worldly philosophy? Heilbroner is not optimistic. For all the technical sophistication of modern economics, it has failed to accomplish the purpose of a worldly philosophy. That purpose is much larger than most economists today-- caught up in the minutia of solving abstract problems of static resource allocation-- would even imagine. In this sense, the two meanings of the term “end” in the title of the final chapter of The Worldly Philosophers are linked, as the narrow, “pseudoscientific” focus of contemporary thought is leading economics to its demise because of its failure to play the important normative role in society that the ideas of Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Mill, Keynes, and Schumpeter played in their day. Heilbroner laments: “The new vision is Science, the disappearing one Capitalism” (Heilbroner, 1999: 314). Heilbroner planned a book, developing the ideas in this last chapter. As his health deteriorated and he was forced to abandon the idea, Heilbroner proposed a different project, in which he would ask a group of thoughtful (although not like-minded) economists to respond to his arguments. The result is the collection of essays in this issue of Social Research. The contributors have taken seriously the challenge of responding to the last chapter of The Worldly Philosophers. The essays critically assess Heilbroner’s call for a new worldly philosophy, extending his proposed methodology or placing Heilbroner in the history of economic thought. A number of the essays respond to Heilbroner’s call by engaging contemporary issues--war, economic development, globalization, outsourcing, the economics of gender difference--or by rethinking the fundamental economic categories of choice, rationality, and markets. I want to express my sincere thanks to Arien Mack for her strong backing for this project from the instant I proposed it. Cara Schlesinger’s hard work kept us close to (most) deadlines. And I am grateful to the authors who, both in criticism and praise, have shown their great respect for Heilbroner’s contributions. Finally, I would like to thank Bob Heilbroner’s wife, Shirley, and sons David and Peter for their support during this difficult period of Bob’s declining health. In his lectures at the New School, Bob would sometimes joke that if the economics profession today were to establish a Journal of Big Economic Issues (the JBEI, no doubt), its pages would be empty. This would not be for a lack of important economic questions, but because of economists’ unwillingness to ask them. I would like to think of this collection of essays that follows as a first issue of the journal Bob Heilbroner imagined. *William Milberg* *Guest Editor* REFERENCES Heibroner, Robert. The Worldly Philosophers: The Life, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. 7th ed. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999.
Papers by Robert Heilbroner published in Social Research Labor Unrest in the British Nationalized Sector. 19:1 (1952): 61-78 Is Economic Theory Possible? 33:2 (1966): 272-294 Rhetoric and Reality in the Struggle between Business and the State. 35:3 (1968): 401-425 In Memoriam: Henry G. Aubrey--1906-1970. 37:3 (1970): 321-323 Economics as “Value-Free” Science. 40:1 (1973): 129-143 Marxism, Psychoanalysis, and the Problem of a Unified Theory of Behavior. 42:3 (1975): 414-432 Was Schumpeter Right? 48:3 (1981): 456-471 The Problem of Value in the Constitution of Economic Thought. 50:2 (1983): 253-277 Rethinking the Past, Rehoping the Future. 57:3 (1990): 579-586 Economics as Universal Science. 58:2 (1991): 457-474 History’s Lessons. 59:4 (1992): 689-703 Putting Economics in its Place. 62:4 (1995): 883-897 The Concept of Technology: History, Definitions, and Critiques. Introduction. 64:3 (1997): 945-946 Technology and Capitalism. 64:3 (1997): 1321-1325

Editor's Note

Bob Heilbroner joined the editorial board of Social Research in 1960. When I became editor in 1970 he generously became both my guide and my cheerleader. It is difficult to imagine anyone better suited for those roles. The journal mattered to him, and what mattered most about it, I think, was what it was not, rather than what it was. Social Research was not, despite its misleading title, a standard sociology or social science journal, replete with reports of endless number-crunching studies and surveys. In perhaps much the same way, economics for Bob was not a discipline insulated from the society and culture in which it was embedded.

It was because we tried to make Social Research a journal of ideas that Bob cared about it, and the fact that he published in it so often was the best evidence of his caring, since he could have published what he wrote for us in many other places. (A list of his articles in Social Research appears below.) He never missed board meetings and was always ready to think about what the next thematic issue should be and who might be invited to write for it. His range of references was dazzling. The absence of his voice in the recent past has left a void that has been difficult to fill.

It seems entirely appropriate that an issue of Social Research be devoted to Bob’s work and to commemorating his book, The Worldly Philosophers, which probably was read by almost every college student in the country for many years.

I would like to thank my colleague, Will Milberg, who worked very closely with Bob during his last years at the New School, for suggesting this issue and organizing it. My thanks go as well to all of the authors who have written for this issue.

Arien Mack
Editor

Guest Editor's Note

This special issue of Social Research celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Robert Heilbroner’s classic work, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. The book, now in its seventh edition, has sold more copies in the United States than any other book on economics, with the exception of Paul Samuelson’s undergraduate text Economics. Heilbroner’s book remains popular because of his wonderfully flowing and accessible writing style and the colorful detail he provides about the lives of the otherwise faceless giants in the history of “the dismal science” of economics. We learn, for example, that Adam Smith, who lived with his mother until she died at 90 and then continued his “bachelor’s life in peace and quiet,” was so absentminded that “on one occasion he descended into his garden clad only in a dressing gown and, falling into reverie, walked fifteen miles before coming to.” Karl Marx was “not an orderly man; his home was a dusty mass of papers piled in careless disarray in the midst of which Marx himself, slovenly dressed, padded about in an eye-stinging haze of tobacco smoke.” And Joseph Alois Schumpeter was a “would-be aristocrat” who lied to friends about his young wife’s background: “when she was away for a year before their marriage, he explained that she was being properly educated in French and Swiss schools. In fact she was earning her living in Paris as a maid” (Heilbroner, 1999: 45, 140, 298).

These amusing tidbits might be enough to sell the book to one generation. But The Worldly Philosophers has now inspired several. Its staying power comes from its compelling rendition of the great efforts to understand the dynamics of capitalism. These dynamics include short-run economic fluctuations and long-run tendencies, wealth accumulation and its devastating “side effects” in terms of income inequality, poverty, government corruption, business collusion, industrial concentration, and, finally, the connection between these turbulent dynamics and the social, political, ethical, and technological issues of the day. What bubbles up from the pages of The Worldly Philosophers is the tumultuous evolution of capitalist societies over the past two and one-half centuries, and the creativity of the “great economic thinkers” in capturing these complex dynamics. Moreover, Heilbroner shows that such dramatic narratives are of profound relevance to contemporary society and its prospects for the future.

The book has given a sense of purpose and hope to generations of young students of economics. At a recent academic conference session devoted to Heilbroner’s work, a number of audience members--all now professional economists-- spoke of how The Worldly Philosophers had affirmed their feeling that there was more to economics than the dry and politically conservative material they were being fed in textbook form in their college classes. This reaction reflects the multiple layers of The Worldly Philosophers. For all its lightness of style, the book’s subtext is the grand role for economic thought in social progress.

Subtext became text in the seventh, and most recent, edition of the book published in 1999, in which Heilbroner added a new and final chapter with the ambiguous title “The End of the Worldly Philosophy?” Heilbroner clearly intended a play on the dual meaning of the word “end”: purpose and termination. Let me consider each of these meanings as I introduce the essays in this special issue of Social Research.

The chapter begins with the modest claim that economics is not science and not even theory, but instead an “explanation system” of capitalism. It is notable that Heilbroner resists the notion of theory (we will see why later), but more important is his argument that the substance of economic theory is not individual choice or the study of markets, but capitalism. Capitalism, for Heilbroner, is a socioeconomic system that cannot simply be reduced to markets, but must consider also the acquisitive drive for wealth and the interdependence of the private and public sectors. With this broad and interdisciplinary scope for economic thought, the purpose of worldly philosophy becomes quite grand. A plausible and engaged explanation of capitalism provides also a logic for thinking through scenarios of the future. But the challenge of worldly philosophy is more than the production of accurate predictions. Scenario building has an inherently normative dimension, since thinking through plausible scenarios allows--compels--a reasoned analysis of how society can avoid disastrous outcomes and promote social improvement:

[A] worldly philosophy has a unique potential to provide the visionary guidance that will help at least some
capitalisms make their way as safely as possible through the coming decades. . . . [T]he purposeful end of the
worldly philosophy should be to develop a new awareness of the need for, and the possibilities of, socially as well
as economically successful capitalisms (Heilbroner, 1999: 320-321).

This grand “end” of economic thought connects also to its methodology. Heilbroner gives two fundamental reasons why economics should not emulate natural science. First, economics deals with human nature and especially human decision making, which is fundamentally different from the interaction of electrons:

[H]uman behavior cannot be understood without the concept of volition--the unpredictable capacity to change
our minds up to the very last moment. By way of contrast, the elements of nature behave as they do for
reasons of which we know only one thing: the particles of physics do not “choose” to behave as they do
(Heilbroner, 1999: 317).

Thus the reduction of human behavior to utility maximization is both tautological (viewed ex post, every decision is utility-maximizing) and too narrow in its exclusive emphasis on instrumental rationality.

The second objection holds that economic theory--even the most sophisticated mathematical model--is inevitably value-laden. Heilbroner writes:

[W]hat does it mean to be “objective” about such things as inherited wealth or immiserating poverty? Does it
mean that those arrangements reflect some properties of society that must be accepted, just as the scientist
accepts the arrangements studied through a telescope or under a microscope? Or does it mean that if we were
scrupulously aware of our own private endorsements or rejections of society’s arrangements we could, by
applying an appropriate discount, arrive at a truly neutral view? In that case, could one use the word “scientific”
to describe our findings, even though the object of study was not a product of nature but of society? The
answer is that we cannot.

When lecturing on Marx, Heilbroner would often say with amusement that the most contentious word in the title of his book Marxism: For and Against was the innocuous-sounding “and.” Similarly, I would say that the most challenging part of the title of the chapter “The End of the Worldly Philosophy?” is the innocent-looking question mark. The question mark refers to the uncertain future status of economic thought. Would economics be able to regain its place as worldly philosophy? Heilbroner is not optimistic. For all the technical sophistication of modern economics, it has failed to accomplish the purpose of a worldly philosophy. That purpose is much larger than most economists today-- caught up in the minutia of solving abstract problems of static resource allocation-- would even imagine. In this sense, the two meanings of the term “end” in the title of the final chapter of The Worldly Philosophers are linked, as the narrow, “pseudoscientific” focus of contemporary thought is leading economics to its demise because of its failure to play the important normative role in society that the ideas of Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, Marx, Mill, Keynes, and Schumpeter played in their day. Heilbroner laments: “The new vision is Science, the disappearing one Capitalism” (Heilbroner, 1999: 314).

Heilbroner planned a book, developing the ideas in this last chapter. As his health deteriorated and he was forced to abandon the idea, Heilbroner proposed a different project, in which he would ask a group of thoughtful (although not like-minded) economists to respond to his arguments. The result is the collection of essays in this issue of Social Research. The contributors have taken seriously the challenge of responding to the last chapter of The Worldly Philosophers. The essays critically assess Heilbroner’s call for a new worldly philosophy, extending his proposed methodology or placing Heilbroner in the history of economic thought. A number of the essays respond to Heilbroner’s call by engaging contemporary issues--war, economic development, globalization, outsourcing, the economics of gender difference--or by rethinking the fundamental economic categories of choice, rationality, and markets.

I want to express my sincere thanks to Arien Mack for her strong backing for this project from the instant I proposed it. Cara Schlesinger’s hard work kept us close to (most) deadlines. And I am grateful to the authors who, both in criticism and praise, have shown their great respect for Heilbroner’s contributions. Finally, I would like to thank Bob Heilbroner’s wife, Shirley, and sons David and Peter for their support during this difficult period of Bob’s declining health.

In his lectures at the New School, Bob would sometimes joke that if the economics profession today were to establish a Journal of Big Economic Issues (the JBEI, no doubt), its pages would be empty. This would not be for a lack of important economic questions, but because of economists’ unwillingness to ask them. I would like to think of this collection of essays that follows as a first issue of the journal Bob Heilbroner imagined.

William Milberg
Guest Editor

REFERENCES

Heibroner, Robert. The Worldly Philosophers: The Life, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. 7th ed. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999.

Papers by Robert Heilbroner published in Social Research

Labor Unrest in the British Nationalized Sector. 19:1 (1952): 61-78

Is Economic Theory Possible? 33:2 (1966): 272-294

Rhetoric and Reality in the Struggle between Business and the State. 35:3 (1968): 401-425

In Memoriam: Henry G. Aubrey--1906-1970. 37:3 (1970): 321-323

Economics as “Value-Free” Science. 40:1 (1973): 129-143

Marxism, Psychoanalysis, and the Problem of a Unified Theory of Behavior. 42:3 (1975): 414-432

Was Schumpeter Right? 48:3 (1981): 456-471

The Problem of Value in the Constitution of Economic Thought. 50:2 (1983): 253-277

Rethinking the Past, Rehoping the Future. 57:3 (1990): 579-586

Economics as Universal Science. 58:2 (1991): 457-474

History’s Lessons. 59:4 (1992): 689-703

Putting Economics in its Place. 62:4 (1995): 883-897

The Concept of Technology: History, Definitions, and Critiques. Introduction. 64:3 (1997): 945-946

Technology and Capitalism. 64:3 (1997): 1321-1325

Part 1	Heilbroner's Methodology
Robert M. Solow	Even a Worldly Philosopher Needs a Good Mechanic [Read Solow's complete paper]
Julie A. Nelson	Is Economics a Natural Science?
Susan Haack	Science, Economics, "Vision"
William Milberg	The Robert Heilbroner Problem
Arjo Klamer	Visualizing the Economy

Part 2	Worldly Philosophy and Twenty-First-Century Capitalism
Lester C. Thurow	Do Only Economic Illiterates Argue That Trade Can Destroy Jobs and Lower America's National Income? [Read Thurow's complete paper]
Jan Kregel	Two Views on the Obstacles to Development
James K. Galbraith	The Worldly Philosophers and the War Economy
Ravi Baghirathan, Codrina Rada, and Lance Taylor	Structuralist Economics: Worldly Philosophers, Models, Methodology

Part 3	Rethinking Markets, Rationality, and Choice
Duncan K. Foley	Rationality and Ideology in Economics
Nancy Folbre	Sleeping Beauty Awakes: Self-Interest, Feminism, and Fertility in the Early Twentieth Century [Read Folbre's complete paper]
Warren J. Samuels	Markets and Their Social Construction
A nwar Shaikh	The Power of Profit

Part 4	Heilbroner in the History of Economic Thought
Robert W. Dimand	Heilbroner and Polanyi: A Shared Vision
Mathew Forstater	Envisioning Provisioning: Adolph Lowe and Heilbroner's Worldly Philosophy
Peter L. Bernstein	The Worldly Philosopher Behind The Worldly Philosophers [Read Bernstein's complete paper]


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