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[NOTE: Subsequent to my posting the announcement of the Society's best  
article prize, the winner submitted the following abstract of his article.  
-- RBE] 
 
HOW THEORY CAME TO ENGLISH CLASSICAL ECONOMICS* 
 
William O. Coleman 
 
Economics Department, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-85, Hobart,  
7001, AUSTRALIA 
 
 
ABSTRACT 
 
The theoretical method of English classical economics is traced to the 
Enlightenment's struggle to resolve the disputes between rationalism and 
anti-rationalism. In an attempt to resolve these disputes,  many 
Enlightenment authors sought to unite empiricism with the notion of 
law-like 
universe by arguing that economic laws are no more than general facts, 
apparent from everyday life. This position, by denying that theory had any 
connection with the hypothetical, the instrumental or the abstract, blurred 
the distinction between theory and fact, taught Classical economists to see 
their theorising as fact, and gave the Classical economists licence to 
pursue their theoretical speculations. 
  
William Coleman 
Dept of Economics 
University of Tasmania 
email: [log in to unmask] 
 
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