Traditional economics treats the defining subjective properties of economic agents (tastes, preferences, demands, goals and perceptions) as if they are determined independently of individual and collective relations with other agents. This collection of essays reflects the increasingly common view that economics cannot continue to disregard all economic phenomena inconsistent with this conception. The volume is especially concerned with the idea of intersubjective influences on market outcomes. A team of expert international contributors have been brought together to address the question of intersubjectivity from a variety of perspectives. Using methods of description and analysis they explore the structures and effects of concrete interdependencies between individual subjectivities engaged in economic activity, and develop conceptual and analytical tools for this task. Many of the essays are interdisciplinary in scope and in addition to economics the book should provide valuable lessons in psychology, sociology, social theory, philosophy, political science and history.

"The history of European economic thought has long been written by those seeking to prove or disprove the truth-value of the theories they describe. This work takes a different approach. It explores the philosophical groundwork of the theoretical structure within which economic subjects are presented. Demonstrating how the subjects of economic texts tend to be defined in and through their relationship to knowledge, this study addresses the epistemological constitution of subjectivity in economic thought."--Publisher's website.

Can we have objective knowledge of the world? Can we understand what is morally right or wrong? Yes, to some extent. This is the answer given by Adam Smith and Edmund Husserl. Both rejected David Hume’s skeptical account of what we can hope to understand. But they held his empirical method in high regard, inquiring into the way we perceive and emotionally experience the world, into the nature and function of human empathy and sympathy and the role of the imagination in processes of intersubjective understanding. The challenge is to overcome the natural constraints of perceptual and emotional experience and reach an agreement that is informed by the facts in the world and the nature of morality. This collection of philosophical essays addresses an audience of Smith- and Husserl scholars as well as everybody interested in theories of objective knowledge and proper morality which are informed by the way we perceive and think and communicate.

. . . there are many first-rate contributions here. Those contributions make this collection valuable especially to readers who are already knowledgeable about the various areas in which the interests of philosophers and economists overlap. Daniel M. Hausman, Journal of Economic Methodology The Elgar Companion To Economics and Philosophy is a very good read. Every library should buy it now. John King, History of Economics Review The volume collects articles surveying developments in such related fields as economic methodology, ethics, epistemology, and social ontology. Many of the articles are forward-looking, and as such constitute substantive and original (and at times provocative) contributions to the literature. The volume as a whole is a success; the editors are to be congratulated for their efforts. Bruce J. Caldwell, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, US This Companion is called economics and philosophy but actually it is about the philosophy of economics and all the great questions in the subject are here. The weather in the philosophy of economics has been stormy lately and the climate continues to this day to be unsettled. Will the storms soon settle down to give way to calmer days? Read this excellent collection of informative papers in the field to stimulate your own answer to that question. Mark Blaug, University of London and University of Buckingham, UK The Elgar Companion to Economics and Philosophy aims to demonstrate exactly how these two important areas have always been linked, and to illustrate the key areas of overlap. The Companion is divided into distinct parts, each of which highlights a leading area of scholarly concern: political economy conceived as social philosophy; the methodology and epistemology of economics; and social ontology and the ontology of economics. The contributors are well-known and distinguished authors from a variety of disciplines, who have been invited both to survey and to provide a personal assessment of current and prospective future states of their respective areas of philosophical interest. Academics and students who have an interest in economics and philosophy, political philosophy and the history of ideas will find this book of great appeal, as will researchers working in the field and readers interested in the nature of the discipline of economics.