Author: Robert L.

Heilbroner

The Worldly
Philosophers
The lives, times, and ideas of the
great economic thinkers
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Place of Publication: New York, NY
Date of Publication: 1999
Number of Pages: 330

Kaitlyn Yale
OGrady
Economics
18 November 2014

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Economics is the branch of knowledge concerned with the production, consumption,
and transfer of wealth (Economics). There are countless philosophers and books about
economic theories. For those who are unfamiliar with the topic, it can be very difficult to
understand. Economics is almost like a different language. In The Worldly Philosophers,
written by Robert Heilbroner, Heilbroner helped decipher the theories of eight major
philosophers: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Robert Malthus, Karl Marx, John Stuart
Mill, Joseph Schumpeter, Torstein Veblen, and John Maynard Keynes.
Robert Louis Heilbroner was an economist and writer who taught people about
economics and why the world is the way it is today. He was born on March 24th, 1919 in
New York to a wealthy German family. His father, Louis Heilbroner, founded a mens
clothing retailer called Weber and Heilbroner. In 1940, Heilbroner graduated from Harvard
University with a degree in philosophy, government, and economics. He also served in the
army during World War II. In the 1950s, after the war, Heilbroner became a researcher at
the New School for Social Research in New York. He soon earned his Ph.D. in economics
from the New School for Social Research. Heilbroner taught classes at the school for more
than twenty years. He was a bright man who influenced the people around him. Heilbroner
was elected Vice President of the American Economic Association in 1972. He had two
sons, David and Peter. Heilbroner wrote over twenty books on economics in the United
States. His most popular ones were The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of
the Great Economic Thinkers (1953), An Inquiry into the Human Prospect (1974), The Crisis
of Vision in Modern Economic Thought (1995), Economics Explained (1982), and The Nature
and Logic of Capitalism (1985). Heilbroner viewed economics broadly; he saw it as a system
in context with political and social systems. Heilbroner died on January 4th, 2005 in New

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York at the age of 85 ("Robert Louis Heilbroner").
Heilbroner was best known for his book, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times,
and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. He wrote his best seller in 1953. Heilbroner
described the beliefs of many classical, political economists, including Adam Smith, David
Ricardo, Thomas Robert Malthus, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Joseph Schumpeter, Torstein
Veblen, and John Maynard Keynes. Heilbroner explained their views on government,
politics, economy, and society. He talked about how each and every one of them has shaped
our world today. The Worldly Philosophers offered a great explanation of the development
of modern economic philosophy. For example, Leonard Silk, an American economist,
author, and journalist, said: Robert Heilbroners The Worldly Philosophers is a classic, both
because he makes us see that the ideas of the great economists remain fresh and important
for our times and because his own brilliant writing forces us to reach out into the future
(Heilbroner back cover). Heilbroner was a brilliant man and used his humor and originality
to teach everyday people about the ins and outs of society.
The third chapter of The Worldly Philosophers, The Wonderful World of Adam Smith,
is thirty-three pages explaining Adam Smith and his beliefs. Adam Smith was among the
foremost philosophers of his age (Heilbroner 42). Smith was a scholarly Scottish bachelor
who taught at both Oxford University and the University of Glasgow. After a three-year tour
of Europe and meeting Benjamin Franklin, Dr. Samuel Johnson, and Francois Quesnay,
Smith was inspired to write an encyclopedia on economics. The nine hundred page book,
The Wealth of Nations, was completed twelve years later. Adam Smith had three main
economic laws: the laws of market (self-interest or profit motive and competition), the law
of motion, and the law of population. My favorite economic laws of Smiths were the laws of

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market self-interest and competition. Self-interest, or profit motive, motivated people to
make things that society was willing to pay for. It is not from the benevolence of the
butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from our regard to their
self-interest (Heilbroner 55). The desire for wealth infiltrates all human actions. If it
werent for competition, our community would be full of selfish profiteers who would take
all of our money. If he raises his price, his competitors will step in and take his market
away from him by underselling him (Heilbroner 56). Because of competition, consumers
are not paying an exorbitant amount of money for everyday things (Heilbroner 42-74). I
agree with Smiths laws of market. The law of self-interest and the law of competition
complement each other nicely resulting in a great system.
Another big philosopher Heilbroner talks about is Karl Marx (1818-1883). This ia
an economist who has read every economist, a German Pedant with a passion for dotting Is
and crossing ts, and an emotional critic (Heilbroner 155). Marx was born in Germany into
a middle-class Jewish family. He went to college to study philosophy. After his job as an
editor for a radical newspaper, Rheinische Zeitung, Marx pursued politics and economics. In
1844, in Paris, Marx met his longtime friend, Friedrich Engels. Engels was the son of a
wealth German textile manufacturer. He secretly associated with capitalists while he
devoted himself to socialism. With the help of Engels, Marx wrote The Communist
Manifesto. Marx also wrote another lengthy book called Das Kapital. The Communist
Manifesto talks about the revolutionary aims of communism and states that capitalism will
destroy itself, while Das Kapital is a critique of political economy which explains economics
in scientific terms. I really enjoyed reading about Das Kapital. The twenty-five hundred
page book took almost twenty years to complete. The fourth and final volume was not

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released until 1910, after Marxs death. The great merit of the book, curiously enough, is
its utter detachment from all considerations of morality. The book describes with fury, but
it analyzes with cold logic (Heilbroner 155). In Das Kapital, Marx uses a perfect world of
capitalism to show how even the best form of capitalism is headed for disaster. In the
perfect world of capitalism, there are two main protagonists the worker and the
capitalist. Marx predicted the trends of capitalism: as the economy expands, profits will fall,
as the profits fall, businesses will innovate and experiment, businesses will have a cycle of
depression and success, the working class will overcome factory owners, and capitalism
will disappear. In Russia and Eastern Europe, capitalism was displaced by socialism; in
Germany and Italy it drifted into fascism the grim truth is that these changes occurred
largely for the very reason Marx foresaw: capitalism broke down (Heilbroner 166). Marx
theories still exist today (Heilbroner 136-169). Heilbroner does a great job of giving
examples to the reader for a better understanding of Marxs theories.
Thorstein Veblen is another one of the eight philosophers Heilbroner analyzes.
Veblen was a Norwegian immigrant who lived in Wisconsin. He grew up in a Norwegian
community in Minnesota. Veblens childhood consisted of a boring farm life. When he was
seventeen, he was sent to a Lutheran college to study religion. In 1884, he received a Ph.D.
from Yale University and then returned home to study political science, economics,
sociology, and anthropology. He soon got a job at the University of Chicago. Veblen
published two major books throughout his life: The Theory of the Leisure Class and The
Theory of Business Enterprise. I really liked reading about The Theory of the Leisure Class. In
1899 at the age of forty-two, Veblen released his first book, The Theory of the Leisure Class.
Veblen was still teaching at the time. William Dean Howells [a literary critic] devoted two

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long reviews to it, and overnight the book became the vade mecum of the intelligentsia of
the day (Heilbroner 228). The book analyzes the nature of economics and the meaning of
leisure. Veblen believed that the leisure class would enjoy their leisure more by displaying
it to the public. For example, U.S. businessmen would make money and then display and
buy new things so everybody knew what they were earning. Veblen thought that the waste
of money was used to prove status. He also explained that the proletariat revolution had
not occurred in the United States yet because the working class did not want to overthrow
the upper class, but join them (Heilbroner 213-247). Veblens theory of the leisure class is
very accurate today. Most wealthy people drive very expensive cars and wear designer
clothes. It is very easy to distinguish between a wealthy person and not so wealthy person
based on their appearance and how they spend their money.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Worldly Philosophers. I loved learning about
eight major philosophers in history: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Robert Malthus,
Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Joseph Schumpeter, Torstein Veblen, and John Maynard Keynes.
My personal favorites were Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Torstein Veblen. All eight of them
had very interesting theories when it came to economics. I would recommend this book to
anybody who is interested in learning about economics. It is a very informational book full
of theories from some of the most intelligent philosophers in all time. Heilbroner did a
phenomenal job of summarizing and analyzing their theories. He is a very talented writer
and did a great job of engaging the reader. He used multiple examples to help the reader
understand what the philosophers meant. John Kenneth Galbraith, an American economist
and diplomat, considered the book a brilliant achievement (Heilbroner front cover). I
would have to agree with Galbraith. I truly enjoyed The Worldly Philosophers.

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Works Cited
"Economics." The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition.
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. 17 Nov. 2014. <Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/economics>.
Heilbroner, Robert L. The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great
Economic Thinkers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999. Print.
"Robert Louis Heilbroner". Encyclopdia Britannica. Encyclopdia Britannica Online.
Encyclopdia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 13 Nov. 2014
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1089443/Robert-LouisHeilbroner>.