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Methodology

In: Lionel Robbins

Author

Listed:
  • D. P. O’Brien

    (University of Durham)

Abstract

Robbins’s Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science (ENSES)is one of the two most important methodological statements by any economist this century and the single most important until the appearance of Friedman’s classic essay.1 It is, then, instructive to examine the origins of this book which first appeared in 1932. It seems clear that the book originated in at least three different considerations. The first, as Robbins recounts in his Autobiography,was the need, as Robbins saw it, to reformulate economics in such a way that it could take account of non-materialwelfare and also of destructive activities which nevertheless were chosenand which used resources —principally, war. This was not a difficult step, given the marginal want-satisfaction of Wicksteed and the Austrians.2 But it was a fundamental departure from Cannan’s position, in which materialwelfare was given a central place, as Robbins was very much aware.

Suggested Citation

  • D. P. O’Brien, 1988. "Methodology," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Lionel Robbins, chapter 3, pages 23-40, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-09683-1_3
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-09683-1_3
    as

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