Liberty Fund recently lost a good friend with the death of Paul Lewis. Paul was one Professor of Political Economics at Kings CollegeLondon and had been at the Cambridge Faculty. Paul was a big interpreter of economic thinking and specific thinkers – so much so much that Bruce Caldwell asked him to work a volume of Hayek’s collective works. He worked in the middle of a different volume when he died tragically at the much too young age of 53.
Paul’s work was broadly at the intersection of philosophy and economy, but it was his macro level writings that compared the various schools that include a large part of classical liberal thinking in the 20th century that established him as a first-class learned economists and philosophers. He was “fluent” in the Austrian economy, public choice and the Bloomington School, and he published countless articles with leading scientists in every field.
He was also the king of big titles for his papers when he could. A Recent paper with John MeadowCroft in Constitutional political economy Buchanan and Vincent Ostrom called “Constitutional Artisans”. There was The hand behind the invisible hand, who investigated the concept of the invisible hand about classical liberal thinking, and entitled the ironically entitled Far from a nihilistic crowd: the theoretical contribution of radical subjectivist Austrian economy. Maybe my personal favorite Orders, orders everywhere … on Hayek is the market and other ordersWhat a super title and a very interesting article. He was able to see links on the territory that occupy many of the most influential classic liberal economists and we are all the better for his research.
I actually vividly remember the first time I met Paul. We were in Ockenden Manor in 2007. There was a lot that struck me about Paul, including his scientific and thoughtful approach to his work, his real and easy smile, together with his self -earned sense of humor. I also came across him who ran through a field while I was quite locked through the countryside. You could see that he loved his life and what he did.
Paul and I finally worked together regularly Liberty Fund projects. Paul and Liberty Fund were not necessarily politically aligned, but he was tailored to our mission and especially our texts, which he took just as serious and honest as everyone I have ever encountered in my work. He directed his first Liberty Fund conference with me in 2011 at Isaiah Berlin. I found the conference so interesting that I finally wrote a paper about Berlin’s economy, which Paul then merciful me to present at King’s at a faculty and student group. In the typical Paul fashion he kindly cut me into pieces during the discussion part of the event and then bought a really good dinner.
We finally worked together on many conferences that always make me think and challenged my Priors. Our last was on the Hayek Collected Works Volume he had edited, and it was a super event attended by Bruce Caldwell and an excellent group. Paul has contributed a lot to our conference program and we can never fully repay him for his work to help us promote a conversation about free and responsible society. He will be missed very much.