Economic Theory in Retrospect

0. Introduction and general overview
0.a) Methodological issues
0.b) Economics as science
0.c) The Enlightened tradition

1. Scholasticism
The Aristotelian heritage, symmetry of exchange and value. The influence of Christian thought.

2. Mercantilism
2.a) Intellectual consequences of the emergence of the modern state.
2.b) The mercantilist insights.
2.c) The different schools of European mercantilism.

3. The Physiocratic School.

4. The Classic School: Adam Smith and his work.
4.a) Smith's intellectual trajectory.
4.b) The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations.

5. Classic economic analysis.
5.a) The intellectual foundations of the economic thought of Ricardo and Malthus.
5.b) British economy in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.
5.c) John Stuart Mill and distribution.

6. The Ricardian heritage: Karl Marx
6.a) The historical and political context of Marxism.
6.b) Analytical foundations of Marxism.

7. Heterodox approaches
7.a) Nationalism and the critique of capitalist growth in the XIXth century .
7.b) The German Historical School.

8. The transition to marginalism
8.a) The marginalista revolution and its context.
8.b) The work of Jevons, Menger and Walras
8.c) The Marshallian synthesis.

9. Critiques of the neoclassical model: Veblen and the institutionalism, Pigou, Chamberlin
9.a) first critiques of the psychological principles of behaviour
9.b) the new type of capitalism and the emergence of the large corporation
9.c) externalities and imperfect competition

10. The inter-war period and the Great Depression
10.a) The debate about the origins of the crisis

11. The Keynesian paradigm: John Matynard Keynes
11.a) the breakdown of the 19th century's economic order.
11.b) the analysis of unemployment.