Product Description

The Worldly Philosophers is a bestselling classic that not only enables us to see more deeply into our history but helps us better understand our own times. In this seventh edition, Robert L. Heilbroner provides a new theme that connects thinkers as diverse as Adam Smith and Karl Marx. The theme is the common focus of their highly varied ideas -- namely, the search to understand how a capitalist society works. It is a focus never more needed than in this age of confusing economic headlines.

In a bold new concluding chapter entitled "The End of the Worldly Philosophy?" Heilbroner reminds us that the word "end" refers to both the purpose and limits of economics. This chapter conveys a concern that today's increasingly "scientific" economics may overlook fundamental social and political issues that are central to economics. Thus, unlike its predecessors, this new edition provides not just an indispensable illumination of our past but a call to action for our future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5114 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-10
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
John Kenneth GalbraithA brilliant achievement.

The New York TimesIf ever a book answered a crying need, this one does. Here is all the economic lore most general readers conceivably could want to know, served up with a flourish by a man who writes with immense vigor and skill, who has a rare gift for simplifying complexities.

Leonard SilkRobert Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers is a living classic, both because he makes us see that the ideas of the great economists remain fresh and important for our times and because his own brilliant writing forces us to reach out into the future.

Lester ThurowThe Worldly Philosophers, quite simply put, is a classic....None of us can know where we are coming from unless we know the sources of the great ideas that permeate our thinking. The Worldly Philosophers gives us a clear understanding of the economic ideas that influence us whether or not we have read the great economic thinkers.

Paul SamuelsonSinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith inspired several readers to become Nobel laureates in biology. Robert Heilbroner's new edition of The Worldly Philosophers will inspire a new generation of economists.

Review
Paul Samuelson Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith inspired several readers to become Nobel laureates in biology. Robert Heilbroner's new edition of The Worldly Philosophers will inspire a new generation of economists.

About the Author
Robert L. Heilbroner is the Norman Thomas Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at The New School for Social Research and is the author of more than twenty books. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

The Pen is Mightier than the Sword!
I read this book for a Microeconomics class that I took with Dr. Gertmenian at Pepperdine in California back in the late 1980s.

I enjoyed learning about this handful of powerful philosophers who helped shape economic theory. Some of their theories make good sense; other theories make no sense. There is some serious naïve thoughts about human nature.

The most fascinating person to me was Adam Smith and his thoughts about the free markets system. I especially enjoyed learning about his "Invisible hand theory." It essentially says that selfish businessmen will be good for the economy because of an "Invisible hand." It is sort of like the Trickle down Theory where as businesses grow they have to buy more good and services, and employ more people. Even though greed may be the reason for business to grow, the economic impact is frequently positive.

There are many interesting topics in the book. Just a few are: The Economic Revolution, The Visions of the Utopian Socialists, The Contradictions of Joseph Schumpeter and more. This is an excellent book to gain some insight into these early philosophers and their thoughts on economic thinking.

The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

Good, but too much
I do think this is a very informative book, but I think the author tries too hard. I have a decently large vocabulary, but there were still several words per chapter I needed a dictionary for. There are also a few passages where the author tried to get a little to linguistically creative, which is not really suit the nature of this piece.

A marvelous introduction to the world of economics
It's a bit easy to typecast economics as nothing more than mindless pencil pushing, terminal curve shifting, and painful comparative advantage calculating. As far as the social sciences go, it's something of a black sheep, lacking the excitement of political science or the drama of history. The average Joe would probably rank it somewhere between communication studies and linguistics as the interestingness scale, and somewhere between geography and pocket lint in terms of usefulness. In a way, I can sympathize with Joe. I mean, he just took an economics class in high school, maybe a semester of macro in college, and he probably slept through all of it. He probably took one look at an AS/AD model, with that inexplicably vertical Long Run Aggregate Supply curve (how can a line be a curve?!?!), and decided that this wasn't the field for him.

But in another way, I want to call Joe an idiot. Economics is one of the most intellectually stimulating and, yes, enjoyable fields of study ever devised. And besides that, its relevance to modern times (and all of human development) simply can't be overstated: Behind all of the circular flows and Philips curves and marginal propensities to consume lie the very ground rules of human livelihood, the essential dynamics of societal development, and the basic instructions for to go about the surprisingly complex task of not dying. Nations rise and fall at the turn of an interest rate or the flick of a business cycle, and corporations live (and die) on that unpredictable dance of supply and demand. The study of incentives provides us with the best chance we have of truly predicting human behavior.

Perhaps Joe should read this book. The Worldly Philosophers is an engaging, enjoyable, and insightful introduction to the beleaguered study of economics, and a handy guidebook to its most pertinent ideas. Rather than slog through a series of impersonal concepts and theories, the book focuses on the truly remarkable individuals who helped shape the key tenets of economic thought. Its approach is logical and accessible, presenting the development of economic thought from the early days of civilization to the bedrock principles of Adam Smith and onwards through such luminaries as Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes, leading right up to modern times. Their ideas are laid out plainly, and always with plenty of contextual and historical background.

What the book does for economics, it also does for economists. It completely dispels the notion that its subjects were stuffy, dull calculator (or abacus) jockeys. Each chapter is stuffed with humorous anecdotes, engrossing biographical sketches, and amusing asides that reveal the often-eccentric nature of the great economists. The human element is very much in evidence here, and the effect is delightful and entertaining.

It's the kind of thing that Joe would love: Entertaining, endearing, accessible, and informative. Perhaps you would, too.