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Jevons, Mill And The Private Laboratory Of The Mind

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  • HARRO MAAS

Abstract

In this paper the rift between Jevons and Mill over the method of political economy serves as a prehistory to recent attempts of behavioural economists to once again explain economic behaviour by taking recourse to mankind's physiology. While Mill relied on the association psychology and its introspective method to establish indubitable first principles, Jevons scorned all recourse to introspection. As exemplified for Jevons's theory of labour, psychophysiology gave Jevons the means to think about economic behaviour in terms of functional form, and promised its assessment by means of experiments. Thus levelling down the Victorian distinction between mind and matter, Jevons turned political economy into social physics.

Suggested Citation

  • Harro Maas, 2005. "Jevons, Mill And The Private Laboratory Of The Mind," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 73(5), pages 620-649, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:manchs:v:73:y:2005:i:5:p:620-649
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9957.2005.00468.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Babbage, Charles, 1832. "Economy of Machinery and Manufactures," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number babbage1832.
    2. Nathalie Sigot, 2002. "Jevons’s Debt to Bentham: Mathematical Economy, Morals and Psychology," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 70(2), pages 262-278, March.
    3. repec:bla:manchs:v:70:y:2002:i:2:p:262-78 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. N. B. de Marchi, 1972. "Mill and Cairnes and the Emergence of Marginalism in England," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 344-363, Fall.
    5. Cairnes, John E., 1888. "The Character and Logical Method of Political Economy," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, edition 2, number cairnes1888.
    6. DeMarchi, N B, 1973. "The Noxious Influence of Authority: A Correction of Jevons' Charge," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(1), pages 179-189, April.
    7. Jevons, William Stanley, 1871. "The Theory of Political Economy," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number jevons1871.
    8. Hausman,Daniel M., 1992. "The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521415019, December.
    9. Michael V. White, 2004. "In the Lobby of the Energy Hotel: Jevons's Formulation of the Postclassical “Economic Problem”," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 36(2), pages 227-271, Summer.
    10. Ure, Andrew, 1835. "The Philosophy of Manufactures, or an Exposition of the Scientific, Moral and Commercial Economy of the Factory System of Great Britain," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number ure1835.
    11. White, Michael V, 1994. "Bridging the Natural and the Social: Science and Character in Jevons's Political Economy," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 32(3), pages 429-444, July.
    12. Hausman,Daniel M., 1992. "The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521425230, December.
    13. Warke, Tom, 2000. "Mathematical Fitness in the Evolution of the Utility Concept from Bentham to Jevons to Marshall," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 5-27, March.
    14. Maas,Harro, 2005. "William Stanley Jevons and the Making of Modern Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521827126, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Floris Heukelom, 2007. "Kahneman and Tversky and the Origin of Behavioral Economics," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 07-003/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    2. Robert Sugden, 2009. "Can Economics be Founded on ‘Indisputable Facts of Experience’? Lionel Robbins and the Pioneers of Neoclassical Economics," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(s1), pages 857-872, October.
    3. Francesco GUALA, 2011. "Are preferences for real? Choice theory, folk psychology, and the hard case for commonsensible realism," Departmental Working Papers 2011-18, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.

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