The Vanity of the Economist: A Comment on Peart and Levy's 'The Vanity of the Philosopher'

Abstract:     
In 'The Vanity of the Philosophers,' David Levy and Sandra Peart reconsider "post-classical" economics from the vantage point of Adam Smith's "analytical" egalitarianism. Analytical egalitarianism is assumed, not proved; and Levy and Peart'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.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

Keywords: David Levy, Sandra Peart, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Thomas Carlyle, eugenics, racism, egalitarianism, hierarchy, classical economics, post-classical economics

JEL Classification: B12, B13

working papers series