Warren J. Samuels: Intellectual Historian of Economics

Abstract

The late Warren J. Samuels saw intellectual history as an integral part of his economic scholarship. As an intellectual history he sought to elucidate a past economist’s general theory of economic policy in order to assess the relevance of that policy approach to contemporary settings. For Samuels, a general theory was the background valuation system by which alternative policies were judged. Samuels’ analyses of the Physiocrats, the classical economists, Pareto, and the Chicago School are stories of contest and negotiation over both the nature of the economic order and the power relations that it creates.

Keywords: Warren Samuels, history of economic thought, intellectual history, historiography, general theory of economic policy

JEL Classification: B00, B25, B31