Thünen-Vorlesung

The notions of economists about their own science are reflected in their changing interpretations of a "classical" economics. The paper describes these successive interpretations as they developed from classical to neoclassical, neo-neoclassical and, finally, new classical economics. It is argued that the identification of these stages with specific economic doctrines belongs to scientific mythology rather than to the history of science. Freed from these mythological elements, classical economics emerges as the continuous stream of contributions which, in the dynamic process of intellectual selection, have been accorded the rank of "classic"