ABSTRACT
The character Robinson Crusoe is about conversation. (We often refer to Crusoe in the economic conversation. The number of economists who have actually read the book notwithstanding, it has become a topos, inspiring “calculating man.” No need to know more.) Defoe tossed Crusoe on an island for a couple of years, divorced him from his natural habitat, and after many years gave him contact with another human in the form of someone Crusoe rescues from the cooking pot. He and Friday shared little at first: no language, no literature; that is, no conversation. But under the pressure of the circumstances (and to make a living together), a new conversation developed, one of companionship.
