The Rise of Political Economy as a Science: Methodology and the Classical EconomistsReviews the epistemological ideas that inspired the classical economists: the methodological principles of Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Newton, Locke, Hume, Stewart, Herschel, and Whewell. The classical age of economics was marked by an intense interest in scientific methodology. It was, moreover, an age when science and philosophy were not yet distinct disciplines, and the educated were polymaths. The classical economists were acutely aware that suitable methods had to be developed before a body of knowledge could be deemed philosophical or scientific. They did not formulate their methodological views in a vacuum, but drew on a rich collection of philosophical ideas. Consequently, issues of methodology were at the heart of political economys rise as a science. The classical era of economics opened under Adam Smith with political economy understood as an integral part of a broader system of social philosophy; by the end, it had emerged via J. S. Mill as a "separate science", albeit one still inextricably tied to the other social sciences and to ethics. The Rise of Political Economy as a Science opens with a review of the epistemological ideas that inspired the classical economists: the methodological principles of Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Newton, Locke, Hume, Stewart, Herschel, and Whewell. These principles were influential not just in the development of political economy, but in the rise of social science in general. The author then examines science in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, with a particular emphasis on the all-important concept of induction. Having laid the necessary groundwork, she proceeds to a history and analysis of the methodologies of four economist-philosophers—Adam Smith, Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, and J. S. Mill—selected for their historical importance as founders of economics and for their common Scottish intellectual lineage. Concluding remarks put classical methodology into a broader historical perspective. |
Contents
Introduction Scope Purpose and Limitations of this Study | 3 |
The Philosophical Background Thinkers Who Influenced the Classical Economists | 9 |
Francis Bacon 15611626 and the Philosophy of Science | 11 |
Mathematical Scientist | 21 |
Philosophizing vs Experimentation | 35 |
The DeductiveMathematical Experimental Method | 43 |
John Locke 16321704 Epistemological Uncertainty and the Historical Plain Method | 61 |
Pioneer in Moral Philosophy | 69 |
Induction as Myth | 202 |
Classical Economic Methodology | 205 |
Adam Smith and His Newtonian Method | 207 |
The Tie to Newton | 208 |
Departures from Newtonian Method | 215 |
The Significance of the Essay The History of Astronomy | 220 |
Other Clues to Smiths Method | 227 |
Lessons for Todays Economist | 253 |
Dugald Stewart 17531828 and Scottish Philosophy of Science | 83 |
Model Philosopher | 86 |
William Whewell 17941866 Gentleman of Science | 93 |
Science in Eighteenth and NineteenthCentury Britain | 101 |
The Emergence of Moral Philosophy | 102 |
The Science of Man | 110 |
The Method of Analysis and Synthesis | 128 |
The Clock Metaphor | 131 |
Social Engineering and the Diffusion of Economic Knowledge | 135 |
The Birth of Econometrics | 142 |
A Short History of Induction | 159 |
Bacons Theory of Induction | 162 |
A Closer Look at Newtons Third Step | 171 |
The Myth of Causality and Its Consequences | 173 |
Induction in the Hands of the Scots | 184 |
Herschel Mill and Whewell | 189 |
Jevons and the Decline of Induction | 198 |
Probability Theory | 200 |
Opposing or Complementary Methods? | 259 |
Education and Accomplishments | 268 |
The Methodological Dialogue | 283 |
Significance and Legacy of the MalthusRicardo Dialogue | 316 |
John Stuart Mill Last of the Newtonians | 321 |
Mills Analysis of the Methods of Natural Science | 326 |
The Development of a Method of Social Science | 331 |
The Inexact Science of Political Economy | 338 |
Mill on Specific Methodological Issues in Political Economy | 343 |
Mills Place in the History and Philosophy of Science | 352 |
Concluding Remarks | 355 |
Science and The Gentlemans Magazine 17311759 | 361 |
Selected Bibliography by Topic | 377 |
Sources Cited | 421 |
447 | |
461 | |
Other editions - View all
The Rise of Political Economy as a Science: Methodology and the Classical ... Deborah A. Redman No preview available - 1997 |
The Rise of Political Economy as a Science: Methodology and the Classical ... Deborah A. Redman No preview available - 1997 |
The Rise of Political Economy as a Science: Methodology and the Classical ... Deborah A. Redman No preview available - 2003 |