Editorial : special issue in honour of Mark Blaug

Mark Blaug used to begin his history of economics course with an old Greek proverb: “the fox knows many little things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing”. He would then say that one could characterise most thinkers in the history of economic thought as either a fox or a hedgehog. As a student, I found that this character-driven view illuminated past economists’ theories in a fresh way and brought home to me the distinctiveness of their approaches. Nevertheless, after reading his work, attending his course, listening to him at seminars, and becoming familiar with his ideas on the history and methodology of economics, one question has always remained unanswered in my mind: was Mark Blaug a fox or a hedgehog? If one focuses on his choice of research topics, one might be tempted to describe him as a fox. He wrote essays and articles on almost every subject in economics, and could take some credit for launching new ones, such as the methodology of economics, the economics of art, and the economics of education. He was always incredibly well-informed and up to date about the academic literature in all areas of economics. Indeed, he was well-known for reading voraciously and widely, not only within economics, but also in fields as varied as philosophy, political sciences, physics, biology, history, art, and literature. And while some foxes might have to sacrifice a grasp of detail for the sake of comprehensiveness, Mark’s pursuit of the economic ideas that interested him was far from superficial. Yet from another perspective, he could be described as a hedgehog. There were a number of central issues that he returned to repeatedly and studied intensively (and almost obsessively) throughout his career, for instance, Ricardian economics, general equilibrium theory, the normative character of economics, and falsificationism in economics (see Blaug 1958; 1992 [1980]; 2002; 2003; 2007). Considered separately, Mark’s approach to these topics was quite fervent and dogged towards a