Как возникла экономическая наука: конкурс проектов

Вопросы экономики. 2023. № 3. С. 5–23.

Ananyin O. I.

The formation of economics as a science is traditionally referenced to Adam

Smith and presented — even if with reservations — as an ascent from delusions to

true theory, underlying almost all modern schools of economic thought. Despite

the importance of Smith’s Wealth of Nations, such a view does not reflect the real

course of the evolvement of scientific economic knowledge and prevents adequate

perception of the logic of its subsequent development. The article substantiates

the need to rethink the initial phase of the history of economic science on

the basis of a closer linkage of this history with the scientific revolution, which

created conditions for the emergence of a whole range of blueprints of scientific

economics, associated with such names as William Petty, John Law, James

Steuart. It is shown that the blueprint of theoretical economics, which set

the course for the development of economic science and was personified by

Adam Smith, relied heavily on the work of Richard Cantillon, who generalized

knowledge and experiences of mercantilist writers on the methodological basis

that arose during the scientific revolution of the 17th — early 18th centuries.

Keywords: научная революция, David Hume, Дэвид Юм, история экономической мысли, Адам Смит, history of economic thought, scientific revolution, Ричард Кантильон, Adam Smith, Richard Cantillon, James Steuart, Джеймс Стюарт

Publication based on the results of: The past as a resource for the human and social theory (2016)