Understanding classical presuppositions, terminology and concepts

The chapter provides the essential guide to understanding how economists became cut off from their classical past. With the Keynesian revolution in particular, there have been so many changes in terminology and definitions, not to mention presuppositions, that it has become impossible for a modern economist to read a classical text and follow its meaning without instruction. The aim of this chapter is to allow a modern economist to make sense of a classical text in the way it was meant to be understood by providing a guide to the terminology and definitions that were routinely applied by classical economists. Just the difference in the meaning of the term ‘saving’ is enough to prevent any modern economist from accurately reading a classical economics text, along with being unable to make sense of how an economy operates.