Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication
University of Illinois at Chicago

Professor of Social Thought
Academia Vitae, Deventer

     "I'm an economist and economic historian who around 1980 got interested in the rhetoric of persuasion in my field, and then wider literary matters, such as literary and social theory. My main project for the next few years will be writing a four-volume tome on The Bourgeois Virtues. Volume 1 was published as a trade book by the University of Chicago Press in 2006, and widely and on the whole favorably reviewed, I was gratified to see. I'm a free-market economist, and so the book is theologically speaking an "apology" for capitalism. But I try to be fair to my friends on the left and right." ...
     "The oddest personal fact about me is that until 1995 I was "Donald." I have written on the matter... Read entire text.
What is crucial, Amélie Oksenberg Rorty wrote in 1983, is

Our ability to engage in continuous conversation, testing one another, discovering our hidden presuppositions, changing our minds because we have listened to the voices of our fellows. Lunatics also change their minds, but their minds change with the tides of the moon and not because they have listened, really listened, to their friends' questions and objections. A.O. Rorty, "Experiments in Philosophical Genre: Descartes' Meditations," pp. 545-565 in Critical Inquiry 9 :562


NEWS — LINKS — RECENT POSTS

McCloskey's Lecture Schedule
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In the June Issue

Other Recent Publications, Podcast

McCloskey's forthcoming Bourgeois Towns has been split into two volumes. Bourgeois Deeds: How Capitalism Made Modernity, 1700-1848 is available for download and comment; Bourgeois Rhetorics: How Capitalism Became Virtuous, 1600-1848 will be posted on the site in near future.

Congratulations to Professor McCloskey on a second honorary degree.

She was stunned on December 20th to receive the following:
"Every year the University awards honorary degrees to a small number of individuals who have distinguished themselves in various walks of life. The Governing Authority of National University of Ireland, Galway, at its recent meeting, with my fullest support and recommendation, decided to invite you to accept an Honorary Doctorate. The ceremony will be Friday, June 27, at 12:00."

An Dr Iognáid G. Ó Muircheartaigh, Uachtarán/President

NOW AVAILABLE

The Cult of Statistical Significance

How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives
by Stephen T. Ziliak and Deirdre N. McCloskey
University of Michigan Press, 2007

How the most important statistical method used in many of the sciences doesn't pass the test for basic common sense

Purchase | About | Preface | Contents

HOT item: [PDF] McCloskey's review of Gregory Clark's A Farewell to Alms

TheEconomicConversation.com is an interactive website featuring selected chapters of a new principles textbook (The Economic Conversation, Palgrave, 2008) authored by Arjo Klamer, Deirdre McCloskey, and Stephen Ziliak. The book takes a ground-breaking approach to teaching economics, and stresses that economics is in fact a conversation. The authors invite you to become a Guest Lecturer.


Browse photo galleries of friends, colleagues, family, teachers, and gender transitioning. Updated 27 December. »

Congratulations to Professor McCloskey on her news from Sweden! »

The ceremony took place on October 20th 2007. 		"The School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, takes great pleasure in informing you that the Faculty Board has decided to designate you to an Honorary Degree of Doctor in Economics (doctor honoris causa) at the university."

On The Bourgeois Virtues: Andrea Gabor's feature for "The Creative Mind" in Strategy+Business, Deirdre McCloskey's Market Path to Virtue: An idiosyncratic economist preaches the innate morality of business

"The question is not whether greed is natural — or even good — but whether it adequately explains capitalist behavior" more »

Recently added: excerpts from Crossing, A Memoir: "From Donald to Deirdre: How a man became a woman — and what it says about identity" (Reason, 1999) and "Before Deirdre there was Jane" (courtesy University of Chicago Press).

McCloskey explains why Prudentia (right) holds a mirror and a snake — and why she features so prominently on this website. "Art, Fleeing from Capitalism": A Slightly Sublime Interview/Conversation with Deirdre McCloskey (and Jack Amariglio).

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