The Vanity of the Economist: A Comment on Peart and Levy's The “Vanity of the Philosopher”* |
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| Authors: | Kevin D. Hoover |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Economics and Philosophy at Duke University;2. The author is Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Duke University. This paper is based on comments given in the Roundtable on the Vanity of the Philosopher at the History of Economics Society Annual Conference at Grinnell College, June 23–26, 2006. |
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| Abstract: | Abstract . In the Vanity of the Philosopher, Sandra Peart and David Levy reconsider “postclassical” economics from the vantage point of Adam Smith's “analytical” egalitarianism. Analytical egalitarianism is assumed, not proved; and Peart and Levy's criticisms of many 19th‐ and early 20th‐century economists, as well as eugenics in general, depend on equivocating between analytical and substantive egalitarianism. They fail to provide a non–question‐begging critique of eugenics. |
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