ENGLISH

Erasing the Invisible Hand: Essays on an Elusive and Misused Concept in Economics

By Warren J. Samuels , Marianne F. Johnson , William H. Perry

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2011
ISBN
0521517257, 9780521517256
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
3 MB (3067988 bytes)
Pages
360\360
Topic
Economy
Time added
2014-03-15 14:03:27

Description

This book examines the use, principally in economics, of the concept of the invisible hand, centering on Adam Smith. It interprets the concept as ideology, knowledge, and a linguistic phenomenon. It shows how the principal Chicago School interpretation misperceives and distorts what Smith believed on the economic role of government. The essays further show how Smith was silent as to his intended meaning, using the term to set minds at rest; how the claim that the invisible hand is the foundational concept of economics is repudiated by numerous leading economic theorists; that several dozen identities given the invisible hand renders the term ambiguous and inconclusive; that no such thing as an invisible hand exists; and that calling something an invisible hand adds nothing to knowledge. Finally, the essays show that the leading doctrines purporting to claim an invisible hand for the case for capitalism cannot invoke the term but that other nonnormative invisible hand processes are still useful tools.

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