==================== HES POSTING ======================= [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] ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]