Malthus Was Not the Author of the ‘Dismal Science’
Professor Gavin Kennedy of Adam Smith’s Lost Legacy is perfectly right.
He also comments on a previous AccountingSolver post about the invisible hand:
I agree that Ren’s exposition of the invisible hand that ‘The most common interpretation of the invisible hand is: in pursuing self-interest, individuals promote the common good’, but the trouble is that this is not what Adam Smith wrote.
It is what modern economists from the mid-20th century began to assert Adam Smith was the originator of such a theory, mainly to give justification to their theories of how markets work. Smith didn’t introduce ‘the invisible hand to economics’;
Adam Smith described how markets work in Books I and II of Wealth Of Nations without mentioning anything about invisible hands. Not a lot of economists either know nor believe that (and ignore it when advised of it, as I often do on Lost Legacy).
Professor Kennedy’s comment on the dismal science:
As for the allusion to Malthus and the ‘dismal; science’ that too is a matter of ignorance (wilful or accidental). It qualifies as an ‘urban myth’.
The notion of economics as the dismal science comes from a pamphlet written by Thomas Carlyle attacking John S. Mill in 1849, not Malthus or Ricardo in the early 19th century.
Professor Kennedy is obviously an expert in the History of Economics. His blog gives more interesting and enlightening details on the invisible hand and the dismal science.
Thank you for the corrections, Professor Kennedy.
Images from Microsoft Clipart
Professor Kennedy is right about the ‘invisible hand’ metaphor not appearing in Wealth of Nations, but wrong in claiming that it was an invention of the ‘Chicago School’. It did in fact originate with Adam Smith, but in his earlier book Theory of Moral Sentiments, which as P.J. O’Rourke points out in his commentary on Wealth of Nations really needs to be read along with the later book to place its arguments in the context of Smith’s ethical system.