John Maynard Keynes: Artist, Philosopher, Economist‪.‬

Introduction David Hume, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Henry Sidgwick, together with a series of lesser-known names, form a distinguished line of British philosopher-economists spanning much of the 18th and 19th centuries. Modern economics is different, for the emphasis is on economics as a science, centered on the quantitative methods that are now considered a prerequisite for entry into the field. Contemporary economics possesses a set of techniques that have enabled it to become the hardest of the social sciences, closer to physics than to philosophy. As Hayek pointed out in his critique of scientism, the claim to be scientific has become an important rhetorical device [Hayek, 1952]. There are exceptions, such as Amartya Sen, but although they may be respected by the profession (especially if they win the Nobel Memorial Prize), they are the examples that prove the rule.