The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers, Seventh Edition

From time we find books like this. A book full of insight, information and lessons about the world. Yes, from time to time you read a book that is more than its subject because the scope is so wide and open. In cases like this, everything seems to make sense and get connected, from an equation in mathematical terms to a rainy day in London. Yes, I loved the reading because it teaches something new about something that seems quiet obvious or trivial. Everyone has a theory and a solution to the inequality or the famine in the world, but more often than not, they are all wrong. As M. Gladwell once said, people lacks theories and --usually-- they act ignoring this tiny detail. Theories, explanations, this is what our curious philosophers gives us to see the world the other way round, i.e., as it really is. Now the book: With an exquisite, elegant and appealing style, Robert Heilbroner goes along three centuries or so in which economics has lived with us in the modern sense of the word. To make the difference he explains the emergence of the politics, markets and the capital as connected phenomenons. Never before the world had seen something like this. That's why Adam Smith wrote "An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations" on 1776 and not before. I would say that this is the first important lesson that Mr. Heilbroner gave me, a very layperson in this topic. The book is organized in ten chapters that covers from mid eighteenth century to mid twentieth century. Every chapter transmit the context and the predominating ideas of some worldly philosopher about the changes and disruptions that economics has undergone. The underlying idea of the book is to tell the tale through the heroes of the story rather than the processes. In this sense every reader could disagree with the selection that the author made to tell the story. Why not this or that economist, but in this sense I would remain the sentence that J. L. Borges used to settle the point: there is no anthology that doesn't begin well and doesn't end bad. And this selection --like any other-- is not an exception. Every economist is presented with his history together with his legend. All of them were really strange and freaky guys. All of them were smart and clever enough to grasp the contents of a world --our world-- which is very introspective and it doesn't speak so much about itself. So they explain the world and then they say what would happen to it in the next future if it follows the same path. I would say that every philosopher had an explanation to show how the machinery of economics worked. And I would add that all of them --even Adam Smith-- had a prophecy about the future of that machinery. This is what the book does. It gives you the character, then the ideas and, finally, the prophecies of this heroes. In a sense, all of them were right and all were wrong. The thing is that philosophy is neither a science nor a discipline that gives you a recipe for not committing mistakes. Philosophy is a discipline that gives you the tools for explaining the world showing --at the same time-- the underlying foundations that makes you feel sure about what you say. That's why our worldly philosophers could attack and criticize each other with very dangerous and lethal (i.e., intellectual) weapons. What do we find at last? We find an unforgettable last chapter that speaks about the future, as did the philosophers, of economics. The title of the chapter is "The end of the worldly philosophy?" so you you have to notice the subtle pun between philosophers and philosophy that hides with a hussy smile the last and important message of Heilbroner. I'm not going to talk about that because it would be like revealing the name of the murderer in a detective story so this will be your task as a reader if you make the decision of reading the book. This book! One with highly deserved five stars.

The Worldly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner presents ideas of Adam Smith, Parson Malthus, David Ricardo, John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, Thorstein Veblen, John Maynard Keynes and Joseph Schumpeter, among others, with clarity and brevity. The book educates you about the historical development of the subject of economics with a very readable, quotable and imitable prose. Heilbroner takes the readers on a remarkable journey from the islands of unformed ideas to an understanding of economic realities of preceding generations. Once the knowledge of relevant forms and forces underlying different societies is shown together with methods of production, consumption and taxation; the seeker is introduced to various modes of thinking about profit, loss, welfare, capital, labor, supply, demand, stock and imperialism. The greatest thinkers (limited to Western/economic thinkers of the last three centuries) were people of flesh and blood, and in general most scientific (/and economic) texts ignore the persona behind the idea, principle or axiom. Every philosopher who has contributed to the unraveling of the mystery cult of market where profit is a virtue is revisited and celebrated as a prophet in The Worldly Philosophers. Prophets, not soothsayers, bring insight into existing situations/problems by providing perspectives that are either not available before them or are not pronounced with the same authority or clarity. Yet not all philosophers are ready for the realities of the world, just as not all the societies are mature or conducive for arrival and survival of their philosophers. The last ones are nevertheless worth being aware of, and the book introduces a remarkable cast of such characters as well. Reading the book makes one realize that a few fundamental questions remain unanswered in the field of economics: What is good and bad (in terms of choices, decisions, profit: personal vs labor force vs society? Where does the profit arise from: is it always causing injury to someone somewhere? Are market forces ever seeking profits for a marginal few? Can capitalism survive the contradictions brought about by rational or irrational self-interest versus welfare of humanity or society? Does capitalism always lead to imperialism, the nineteenth century version or the new one where multinational companies play a similar role? Is the customer always the king or is it only a ploy to rob the customer of his rightful profits? Can socialism exist unless many of the economic problems are first solved so that there is enough labor and enough work and enough food in the system? Will technocrats take over the world one day (or should they)? Does a perfect economic system exist only as a utopia? The book emphasizes how the current economic system is in fact only a century or so old, and is ever evolving, increasing in complexity, and when it comes to the distribution of wealth, the present times are no different in the West than were the days of the mediaeval Europe. We are forced to examine our notions of progress, property and propriety, and we are forced to admit that we have evolved varied ways of exploitation of masses and resources for achieving gains for a select few. Yet by its very nature, such a book provides an example of why intellectuals, why philosophers, why scholars are so central to directing and controlling human activity. In the clamor for justice in distribution of wealth we sometimes forget that we humans value things differently in different times, and equality and justice require equal opportunity for receiving any reward (material or spiritual). Perhaps we need a new worldly philosopher who will inspire a mode of production and distribution that allows education and opportunity to everyone when they are growing up, care and medicine to all old people after their share of tasks are done and sensible distribution of necessities to enable humans to live with honor, dignity, honesty and health. Before such a philosopher takes the center stage, he or she will find this book as a useful guide to the lives and works of thinkers before him/her, and I am sure he/she will nod and say, reading this made damn good economic sense!

Good book. It was a standard college text at one time, but still an excellent intro to the subject.

The 7th edition of The Worldly Philosophers remains an essential read for anyone curious about the intersection of economics, history, and human thought. Whether you’re a student beginning your journey into economics or a general reader interested in the great ideas that have shaped our modern world, Heilbroner offers a rare blend of intellectual rigor and narrative warmth. Even in a world of rapid technological and financial change, his call to see economics as a deeply moral and human endeavor is more relevant than ever. Rating: (4.5/5) An enduring classic that humanizes economics through storytelling. Slightly dated in scope, but timeless in spirit.

Before you purchase this book know what it is not. This is not a comprehensive listing of every influential economist of the past 200 years. This is not an assessment of capitalism or an endorsement of any one point of view on political economy. What this book is is a look at various influential economic thinkers of the past 200 years and an attempt to put their ideas regarding economics into the context of the worlds that they lived in. What I liked about this book was not that it compared and contrasted Adam Smith to Karl Marx and tried to see which one came up with a better world view. What I liked was that Heilbroner spent a good deal of time exploring the times and environments that helped to shape each man's views on capitalism. Markets do not operate in a vacuum, they are embedded in the society in which they a part and are shaped by the cultures and technologies that support them. Smith, Marx and Keynes all lived during times when new technologies were colliding with old cultural institutions and the results were massive upheavals that led these men to the ideas they are now famous for. Had Smith been born a century earlier he could never have written about the wages of labor as he did in 'Wealth of Nations' because England had not yet moved out of a feudal economy at that point. Had Marx written 'The Communist Manifesto' in the Germany of 1988 rather than the Germany of 1848 he might not have been so confident in predicting the demise of capitalism. It is this exploration of the times that the great economists lived in that helps the reader appreciate the insights of these great thinkers. Some of the reviewers here have a problem with Heilbroner's choice of which economists he selected for this book. To that complaint I say that you can't write about everyone in a book this short and the author exercised his own judgment about who wasn't important enough to make the cut. If you don't agree with his assessment of who was worthy of inclusion in this book then go write your own overview of the great economists. This book is a very good introduction to many (but certainly not all) of the most influential thinkers in economic theory and a high level overview of their ideas presented in a very accessible format for the general public. The intended audience is the curious layman, not the nit-picking post-graduate expert. For its intended audience this book succeeds wonderfully and I highly recommend it.

Do not be deterred by the title. “The Worldly Philosophers” is a wonderful read. It is the easy way to gain an overall understanding of the history of economics from Adam Smith to Joseph Schumpeter. It is beautifully written. Before proceeding, perhaps I should admit that I have had a lifelong interest in economics. Some people might think this strange or, indeed, boring. To the contrary, I see economics as the study of everything that makes the world tick. The economist is the true generalist trying to understand big picture issues. Robert L. Heilbroner has written a wonderful book. It presupposes no reader knowledge of economics. It can be easily read by the general reader. It is brief and insightful. Personally, I am always drawn back to that famous quote by Adam Smith in 1776 that “people of the same trade seldom meet together but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some diversion to raise prices”. In my mind, this is the best sentence ever written about economics. It applies just as much today as in the late eighteenth century when it was written. However, Heilbroner uses Smith only as a starting point. The reader is quickly introduced to Thomas Malthus, David Ricardo, the Utopian Socialists, Karl Marx and then to thinkers of the twentieth century. The book moves chronologically but not without showing how later generations built at least partly on their predecessors. Indeed, although he is not followed directly by many today, Smith still influences modern debate. The same could also be said of Marx although his influence is certainly on the wane. In summary, this is a very good read. I recommend it to all readers with an interest in the history of economic thought.

This is a great way to become familiar with the fundamental developments of economic theory in the last 250 years. It provides the social and political environment in which they were developed and the personal lives of the people who developed them, all of which provides great context for understanding each advancement. The developments of the last decade are absent. This book is refreshingly absent political bias or professional judgments of the opinions of the times. Economics is truly a worldly philosophy, i.e. how to make the world run better, as this presentation demonstrates. To better understand all of the contexts it helps to have learned something about the politics of the enlightenment period before reading this but it stands alone very nicely. This is a scholarly work, not a casual read, but the narrative style makes it easy to read and to contemplate. I understand it has been an undergraduate class text for decades. I consider this a must read for non-professional economists that wish a better understanding of this topic that is critical to our contemporary condition. When read with an understanding of the Theory of Constraint, it is easy to understand some of the validity and limitations of each development. For example, the pro/con arguments regarding Keynsian theory wash out when you realize that it clearly works when the constraint comes from a stalled economy and clearly stops working when the constraint has shifted, though what that constraint is exactly isn't clear. Economics could benefit greatly from a professional with a TOC/Nu-Business sensibility. After all, if business is a TOC/Nu-Business entity, then economics, which is the system in which all of business works in the aggregate, is definitely such as well.

This is a good introduction to the most influential economic minds of the last 200 years or so, which helps you see how we got where we are today. In each era the world’s influential economists offer up their take on the grand experiment of money and man. This book looks through the most prominent of these. In essence, this is a book review of other prominent and foundational economists’ books, and thus thoughts. Which lends you some idea of the general intent of man and his market at any one time. Given a broad brush of history, a little paint can then splash on thoughts of what drives today. And I think that is what this book leads us to. It’s a good foundation.

In fact I ordered the book as a gift to send to my daughter, who had received it very fast, a day earlier than planned. I have twice read it some years ago. To me, it is a wonderful book every person must read in order to understand the world we live in. As a bonus, it is wonderfully written, an easy lecture and as captivating as a thriller. I warmly recommend it to everyone, be him young or old.

Best book ever written on economics. Economics is a dry science, but the author managed not only to generate interest but integrate over a period of 400 years. Right from Adam Smith to Joseph Schumpster. Great read.

I loved this book. A very readable account of the lives and theories of great economist's.

I don't usually say this but financial independence and the life of a gentleman starts here.

Ultra interesante