The End of the Worldly Philosophers? The Vision of Robert Heilbroner

Robert Heilbroner's The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers (1953), one of the best-selling books in economics, reports on the thinking of the great economists (the Worldly Philosophers) from Adam Smith to Joseph Schumpeter. According to Heilbroner, these economists have adopted a common perspective of the economy understood through visions that are pre-analytical dispositions that include prejudices about the functioning of the economy and its dynamics. This paper presents the specific approach adopted by these economists according to Heilbroner and its implications for economic analysis.