Robert Vienneau — Marx Versus Classical Economics — and more

Robert Vienneau approaches thinking about Marx in relation to previous economists from the perspective of the different distinctions that Marx drew. This is entirely consistent with Marx's training in philosophy, since a cardinal principle of philosophical method is overcoming apparent difficulties in expression by drawing distinctions. This involves changing the grain of the model. A grainy model has the advantage of simplicity but risks the disadvantage of being too simplistic an account.

Importantly, Vienneau notices the purpose for which classical economics was constructed.

The spokesmen for the emerging and progressive capitalist class sought for a theory justifying their opposition to aristocrats and the and the ancien régime. And classical economics was that theory.

The result was what Marx viewed as "bourgeois liberalism," in which capitalists replaced the landed gentry as the beneficiaries of economic rent.

Some argue that neoclassical economics played a similar part as classical economics aimed at the ancien régime in being aimed at rising socialism, e.g., Marx and Engels, and Henry George.

Thoughts On Economics
Marx Versus Classical Economics
Robert Vienneau

See also

Short review of Tim Rogen's The Moral Economists.

The Enlightened Economist
Morals and economics
Diane Coyle | freelance economist and a former advisor to the UK Treasury. She is a member of the UK Competition Commission and is acting Chairman of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporationlso

See also

Marginal Revolution
*Enlightenment Now*, the new Steven Pinker book
Tyler Cowen | Holbert C. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and general director of the Mercatus Center
also

Real-World Economics Review Blog
Polanyi’s six points

Zaman Assad

also

J. W. Mason's
The Class Struggle on Wall Street: A Footnote
JW Mason | Assistant Professor of Economics, John Jay College, City University of New York