History and Philosophy of Science, History and Philosophy of Economics, Science Studies, Early Modern Philosophy.My research is mainly on topics in the history and philosophy of economics. A number of my books and articles examine economics as it drew upon or impinged upon other disciplines, notably mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics. I have been motivated to understand, both historically and philosophically, why economics transformed into a mathematical discipline, and in what sense there are laws that govern the economy, or economic phenomena more specifically. I have recently published a co-authored monograph on Hume’s economics.

Recent Presentations

• STS Colloquium, University of California – San Diego (2020)
• Economics Workshop, New York University (2019)
• Keynote, Australasian Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Brisbane (2019)
• Keynote, History of Economic Thought Society of Australia, Sydney (2015)
• Keynote, International Hume Society Annual Meetings, Portland Oregon (2014)
• Keynote, Tricentary of Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees, Erasmus University, Rotterdam (2014)
• Presidential Address, History of Economics Society, Montreal (2014)

• A Philosopher’s Economist: Hume and the Rise of Capitalism (co-authored, Chicago, 2020).
• David Hume’s Political Economy (co-edited, Routledge, 2008).
• The Natural Origins of Economics (Chicago, 2005).
• Oeconomies in the Age of Newton (co-edited, Duke, 2003).
• A World Ruled by Number (Princeton, 1990).

2021W1: History and Philosophy of Economics I