As economists interested in the history of "our" discipline, we have to  
ask ourselves: of what use is an "enlightenment", or of what use is  
philosophy, or (for that matter) of what use is economics, if it fails  
to address the fundamental issues in a society at the brink of chaos?  
  
Should the "blame" for the French Revolution not be laid on the  
shoulders of the most intelligent and best-educated minds in France for:  
        (a) failing to see the Revolution coming (to the degree they  
failed to see it);   
        (b) failing to address the concerns of their people; and  
        (c) failing to distance themselves from their own elite class  
sufficiently to                         understand that it was futile to  
try to make the current system work, so                 that they could  
have implemented "root and branch" reforms that would           have  
enabled the barbarism of the French Revolution to be avoided?   
  
Equally, in our day, should blame not be laid on the shoulders of the  
most-intelligent and best-educated "contemporary Philosophes" or  
economists who can at least dimly sense the huge challenges of our  
globalising world but who choose to hide behind the elegant formulae of  
mathematics - perhaps because (as in the case of the French  
Philosophes?) they do not want to risk their lifestyle....  
  
Prabhu Guptara