ABSTRACT
JO You attended Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania in early to mid-1960s. What did you study at Muhlenberg and how was your college life?
HENRY Well, Muhlenberg is a liberal arts college, and hence, even though students select a major, they are obligated to take coursework in a whole range of disciplines and sub-disciplines. And if I remember correctly, I do know that in the first year, I was-we were all-severely constrained in that we all had to take a course in the natural sciences in both semesters and we only had three to choose from. We didn’t have the broad, general education, natural sciences courses that you find today. It was either biology, physics, or chemistry-that was it. And we had to take two semesters of history, two semesters of philosophy, two semesters of math, two semesters of etc. And, it was only at some point in the second year-I think it was the second semester of the second year-where we were permitted to choose a major. So we had this very broad-based educational program. And even when we were settled on a major, we still had to take courses in other disciplines. In fact, I think I had more courses in literature than I had in economics, even though I had selected economics as my major, by default. I was slated to take over my father’s business, so had there been a business major, I most likely would have majored in business. At that time, like so many others, I thought that economics and business were so closely related that that was as good as I could do in terms of a business program. What in retrospect is discovered is that that kind of educational program is very useful for later development. If you have a narrow focus from the get-go, then you actually retain a narrow focus in perpetuity, right? Well, as you both know that in my work I bring in history, and I bring in sociology, and I bring in political science. And I bring in the natural sciences, for that matter. I mean, in the first book [The Making of Neoclassical Economics, 1990], the model for my examination of the development of the neoclassical theory was J. D. Bernal’s Science in History, where he lays out this model
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of scientific progress-or actually processes is a better term-and that was the foundation for my model for the examination of neoclassical theory. So, again in retrospect, I would suggest this is the way all students should be prepared for whatever comes down the road in their respective lives, because they will find exposure to all of these areas most useful.
