IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ulp/sbbeta/2016-43.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Why German historicists were wrong to put John Stuart through the Mill

Author

Listed:
  • Phiilippe Gillig

Abstract

Many German historical economists have denounced classical political economy’s pretension to establish abstract universal laws. This paper seeks to defend John Stuart Mill against this criticism. It argues that, contrary to what these authors alleged, they have a great deal more in common with Mill on this topic than they were willing to realise. In fact, from a methodological as well as a political perspective, their views on relativity regarding both economic laws and the laissez-faire principle are very similar to those of Mill’s..

Suggested Citation

  • Phiilippe Gillig, 2016. "Why German historicists were wrong to put John Stuart through the Mill," Working Papers of BETA 2016-43, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2016-43
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://beta.u-strasbg.fr/WP/2016/2016-43.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Montes, Leonidas, 2003. "Das Adam Smith Problem: Its Origins, the Stages of the Current Debate, and One Implication for Our Understanding of Sympathy," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 25(1), pages 63-90, March.
    2. Anonymous, 1985. "Essays on French History and Historians. By John Stuart Mill. Edited by John M. Robson. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985. Pp. cxix + 517. $65.00.)," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(4), pages 1276-1276, December.
    3. Tribe,Keith, 1995. "Strategies of Economic Order," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521462914, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Avner Offer, 2012. "Self-interest, Sympathy and the Invisible Hand : From Adam Smith to Market Liberalism," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 1(2), pages 1-1, December.
    2. Philippe Gillig, 2017. "J.S. Mill And The Universality Of The “Desire Of Wealth”," Working Papers of BETA 2017-28, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    3. Benoît Walraevens, 2022. "Adam Smith’s Economics and the Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres: The Language of Commerce," Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought, in: Adam Smith’s System, chapter 6, pages 141-166, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Amos Witztum, 2005. "Social Circumstances and Rationality:," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 1025-1047, October.
    5. Laurie Bréban, 2017. "An Investigation into the Smithian System of Sympathy: from Cognition to Emotion," Working Papers hal-01467340, HAL.
    6. Carlos Rodríguez Braun, 2021. "Adam Smith’s liberalism," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 465-478, December.
    7. Laurie Bréban, 2018. "An Investigation into the Smithian System of Sympathy: from Cognition to Emotion," Post-Print hal-03904227, HAL.
    8. Maxime Desmarais-Tremblay, 2017. "Paternalism and the public household. On the domestic origins of public economics," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 17032, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    9. Gold, Natalie, 2020. "How should we reconcile self-regarding and pro-social motivations? A renaissance of “Das Adam Smith Problem”," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 109218, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Scott Drylie, 2020. "Professional Scholarship from 1893 to 2020 on Adam Smith’s Views on School Funding: A Heterodox Examination," Econ Journal Watch, Econ Journal Watch, vol. 17(2), pages 350–391-3, September.
    11. Kolev, Stefan & Köhler, Ekkehard A., 2021. "Transatlantic Roads to Mont Pèlerin: "Old Chicago" and Freiburg in a World of Disintegrating Orders," Working Papers 309, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    12. Ballandonne, Matthieu & Cersosimo, Igor, 2022. "Towards a “Text as Data” Approach in the History of Economics: An Application to Adam Smith’s Classics," OSF Preprints mg3zb, Center for Open Science.
    13. Jérôme Ballet & Emmanuel Petit & Delphine Pouchain, 2018. "What mainstream economics should learn from the ethics of care," Post-Print hal-02145302, HAL.
    14. Horn, Karen, 2019. "The difficult relationship between historical ordoliberalism and Adam Smith," Freiburg Discussion Papers on Constitutional Economics 19/3, Walter Eucken Institut e.V..
    15. Giocoli, Nicola, 2008. "Competition vs. property rights: American antitrust law, the Freiburg School and the early years of European competition policy," MPRA Paper 33807, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Avner Offer, 2013. "Regard," Chapters, in: Luigino Bruni & Stefano Zamagni (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Reciprocity and Social Enterprise, chapter 29, pages 285-294, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Bruce E. Kaufman, 2010. "The Theoretical Foundation of Industrial Relations and its Implications for Labor Economics and Human Resource Management," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 64(1), pages 74-108, October.
    18. Avner Offer, 2012. "Self-interest, Sympathy and the Invisible Hand : From Adam Smith to Market Liberalism," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 1(2), pages 1-1, December.
    19. Maltby, Josephine, 1997. "Accounting and the soul of the middle class: Gustav Freytag's Soll und Haben," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 69-87, January.
    20. Ramos Gorostiza José Luis & Trincado Estrella, 2012. "John Stuart Mill on Spain," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 18(2), pages 1-25, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    German historical economics; H. Roesler; G. Schmoller; J. S. Mill; natural laws; epistemology; laissez-faire.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith)
    • B15 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary
    • B40 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ulp:sbbeta:2016-43. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bestrfr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.