History of thought traditions chart

Gary Mongiovi send me this version of my chart, that he nicely organized, that he will use in his own class, I'm glad to say. In mine Jeremy Bentham is at the top. I think Bentham is actually very useful precisely because he is a foil to Smith rather than a parallel “founder of economics.” He lets me establish very early the methodological distinction I want students to see. On the left side, classical political economy, with analysis centered on social classes, production and reproduction, the distribution of the surplus, and distribution as conflict that is embedded in historically/institutionally situated economic relations. On the other side, the Benthamite/utilitarian lineage, where the individual is the primitive unit, of analysis. The rational choice tradition that enshrines utility as the basis for evaluation, and ultimately allows the possibility of understanding social outcomes as the aggregation or interaction of individual decisions.*

 

That makes the marginalist revolution look less like something that appears ex-nihilo in the 1870s. Jevons in particular is much easier to understand as part of a longer individualist-utilitarian tradition. Bentham therefore gives the right side of the chart an intellectual prehistory analogous to the Petty–Quesnay–Smith/Ricardo prehistory on the left. The chart is not simply classical political economy versus neoclassical economics, in that sense. Also it is simply Keynesians (accept effective demand) versus non-Keynesians (accept Say's Law). It is closer connected to the methodological traditions. Some sit uneasily in their side (hence the dotted lines).

 

I hope it is useful to others, as it seems to have been for Gary. 

* Gary adds correctly Jean-Baptiste Say, Robert Malthus and Nassau Senior. I neglected them, perhaps because of my dislike of their work, that tries to derive something from Smith, but has a starting point in the rights side. A great and important addition.