Introduction

The discipline of economics is of course in many ways very different from the “system of political economy” which Adam Smith outlined in 1776. But Smith’s sense of theoretical philosophical systems being used to explain real-world phenomena can be compared to the use of “models” and “modelling” in economics. John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy of 1848, for example, exposes the “invisible hand” as a convenient and imprecise fiction by announcing that “the laws and the conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths. One consequence of the ongoing economic moment has been a marked deterioration of conditions for the arts and humanities. The relationship between economics and the real, established and mediated through representation, is thus, it would seem, both peculiar and unique, compared with that of other knowledge practices. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.