ABSTRACT
German idealism only tangentially touched upon economic questions and therefore did not leave any deep traces in the economic sciences. Marx’s turn from interpreting the world to changing it only constitutes the exception that confirms the rule. English philosophy, by contrast, was far from limiting itself to an interpretation of the world and thus contributed more than many other disciplines to the emergence of political economy. Apart from Locke, we may think of Berkeley, Hume, Bentham, and John Stuart Mill. And Smith and Jevons held chairs in philosophy. The creation of the liberal order required establishing not only the tasks and the limits of state activities regarding the economy, but also a theory of property that, though with its roots in ancient Roman law, was re-established in the course of the development of natural law.
