Notes Taken From Landreth's and Colander's Book "History of Economic Thought" Chapter 1: Introduction · Economic thought consists of both a vision and a formal theory. The vision is the broad perception with which individuals look at the world. The theory comprises the specific models that capture the vision. To understand the thought of individual economists, one must understand both their vision and their model. · Economics is a social science. It examines the problems that societies face because individuals desire to consume more goods and services than are available, creating a condition of relative scarcity. To meet the problem of scarcity, a social mechanism is required for allocating limited resources among unlimited alternatives. Historically, four mechanisms have been used to deal with the problem of scarcity: Brute force, Tradition, Authority and Market. Resource allocation mechanisms determine who gets, and who does not