Answer to Question #156654 in Economics for Pujana

Question

• why adam smith is called classical economist?

Answer 1

The classical school is the school of economic thought of the late 18th - mid-19th centuries. And here, as in the case of the mercantilists and physiocrats, the word "classical" is not a self-name, but an assessment of later economists. Why do we call this school classic? A modern man calls a classic something from the past that, first, is a standard (model, example) for imitation (repetition, copying); secondly, it has not lost its relevance in our days.

Both conditions are primarily applicable to the writings of Adam Smith (1723-1790), undoubtedly the largest representative of the classical school. Figuratively speaking, Adam Smith is the “father” of economics, a “prophet” and ideologist of the market economy. In his main economic work "Research on the nature and causes of the wealth of nations" (abbreviated as "The Wealth of Nations", 1776), for the first time in the history of world economic thought, the main economic problems of that period were solved consistently and consistently from a single methodological standpoint. That is, "The Wealth of Nations" is the first work in economics that meets the criterion of scientific character, and 1776 is the year of birth of economic science. Hence it is clear why A. Smith is her “father”. This is his main service to economic theory.

Before Smith, there were economists no worse, and maybe even better than him, who solved individual economic issues, but they did not give a holistic description of the economy as an economic system. Under these conditions, a full-fledged understanding of these individual economic issues themselves is unattainable, since the connections between them and the role of each in the economy are not clear.

Before Smith, there were economists who tried to solve the basic economic problems of their era, writing synthetic economic works. But all these works lacked the unity of methodology.