Thomas Hobbes, Political Economist

Hobbes’s status as an economic thinker, on the few occasions when scholars have bothered to assess it, has ranged from “insignificant” to “the father of political economy.” Although not a political economist in the mold of Adam Smith, Hobbes explored the interrelations of government and economics and provided much of the language and concepts, including Homo economicus, appropriated by the pioneers of economics.