Sandra Peart on Ethical Quandaries and Politics Without Romance

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Sandra Peart is a Distinguished Professor of Leadership Studies and the President of the Jepson Scholars Foundation at the University of Richmond, as well as a coauthor of Towards an Economics of Natural Equals: A Documentary History of the Early Virginia School, with David Levy. She is also a distinguished fellow of the history of economics society.

Today we talk about the importance of humility in discussing important ideas in addition to the importance of asking the right questions, ethical questions. She leads us through the intellectual landscape of the 60s, post World War II, and the birth of the Virginia School of Economics, which was intent on asking important questions about humanity and the nature of equality. We talk about James Buchanan, Warren Nutter, Gordon Tullock, and their influences such as Adam Smith and Frank Knight. We talk about how public choice and experimental economics both critique and improve the field of economics. 

Want to explore more?

• Sandra Peart and David Levy, The Secret History of the Dismal Science, a five part series at Econlib.
• Reassessing the Political Economy of John Stuart Mill, a Liberty Matters Forum at the Online Library of Liberty.
• Vernon Smith on Experimental Economics, the Nobel Prize, and Life, a Great Antidote podcast.
• Vernon Smith on Adam Smith and the Human Enterprise, an EconTalk podcast.
• Alexandra Hudson on The Soul of Civility, an EconTalk podcast.
• Peter Boettke on Mainline Economics, a Great Antidote podcast.

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