Smith still once again

[John K. Taber]

michael perelman wrote:
> 
> In response to the defense of Smith below, I will offer one more citation
> 
> Willis, Kirk. 1979. "The role in Parliament of the economic ideas of Adam Smith,
> 1776-1800. "History of Political Economy." Vol. 11, No. 4 (Summer): pp. 505-44.
>  510: "The eighteenth century debates are studded with references to the
> economic writings of John Locke, David Hume, Gregory King, Charles Davenant, Sir
> Josiah Child, Sir William Petty, Dean Josiah Tucker, and Arthur Young.
> Moreover, the number of citations of Smith is minute compared to these other
> writers.  For instance, while there are slightly over forty references to Smith
> in the eighteenth-century debates, there are literally hundreds of citations of
> Arthur Young's great works.  Indeed, Smith runs a poor ninth or tenth in
> comparison with many economic authorities."
> 
> Smith was respected as a philosopher, but was not considered to be important as
> an economist.
> 
>  542: "It would not be until the generation of Canning (b. 1770), Liverpool
> (1770), Huskisson (1770), Brougham (1778), Robinson (1782), Palmerston (1784),
> Peel (1788), and Russell (1792) came to prominence that the ideas of political
> economy would achieve dominance in Parliament."

Would not this slow recognition parallel the general acceptance of a new
idea
in the hard sciences? I did some reading on Newton a couple of years
ago. He
was always recognized as a genius, but his physics, especially on
gravity,
were strongly resisted by the Cartesians on the Continent, Huygens for
example. 
The objection was that in describing gravity as an unexplained "force"
acting 
at a distance without any observable connection, Newton was reverting to 
mysticism, which Decartes had specifically tried to ban in scientific
thinking.

During the early part of the 18th Century there were several hoaxes 
inspired in part by the French Catholic Church to "disprove" Newton.

Someplace else I read the cheerfully cynical observation that really new
scientific ideas become generally accepted after the last important
person of the old opposing school dies.

-- 
I've been able to string more words into fewer ideas than anybody I
know, and I'm continuing to do that.

     - Alan Greenspan to the Senate Budget Committee, Sept 23, 1998