ABSTRACT
The precise nature of the relationship between the disciplines of economics and philosophy has yet to be explicated in detail. Certain family resemblances can be readily verified, and traced to a common lineage. Many of the precursors of western economic theory, such as John Locke and Adam Smith, were selfidentified moral philosophers; many other inhabitants of the pantheon of economic theory, such as Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes, are recognized as having made substantial contributions to philosophy. Nevertheless, in the modern era, ontogeny does not recapitulate phylogeny and the average economist in the late twentieth century would deny any neccessary or close links between the two fields.
