ABSTRACT
Like most disciplines, economics grew out of origins in what we now regard as philosophy. Three of the most important early economists, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, and Karl Marx, are regarded as contributors to the philosophical canon. Others, such as Jean-Baptiste Say, Antoine Augustin Cournot, and David Ricardo, have been assigned by intellectual history strictly to the roster of economists. As one might expect, this reflects the wider breadth of interests of the former group. In the present age a few economists, notably Ken Binmore and Amartya Sen, regard themselves and are acknowledged as philosophers; but most economists would resist such an attribution, as implying that they tend to wander outside the boundaries of professionalism.
