William Stanley Jevons and the Making of Modern Economics

Klappentext The Victorian polymath William Stanley Jevons (1835-82) is generally and rightly venerated as one of the great innovators of economic theory and method in what came to be known as the 'marginalist revolution'. This book is an investigation into the cultural and intellectual resources that Jevons drew upon to revolutionize research methods in economics. Jevons's uniform approach to the sciences was based on a firm belief in the mechanical constitution of the universe and a firm conviction that all scientific knowledge was limited and therefore hypothetical in character. Jevons's mechanical beliefs found their way into his early meteorological studies, his formal logic, and his economic pursuits. By using mechanical analogies as instruments of discovery, Jevons was able to bridge the divide between theory and statistics that had become more or less institutionalized in mid nineteenth-century Britain. Zusammenfassung The Victorian polymath William Stanley Jevons (1835–82) is generally and rightly venerated as one of the great innovators of economic theory and method. This book is an investigation into the cultural and intellectual resources that Jevons drew upon to revolutionize research methods in economics. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1. The prying eyes of the natural scientist; 2. William Stanley Jevons: Victorian polymath; 3. The black arts of induction; 4. Mimetic experiments; 5. Engines of discovery; 6. The machinery of the mind; 7. The private laboratory of the mind; 8. The laws of human enjoyment; 9. Timing history; 10. Balancing acts; 11. The image of economics.

Product details

• Authors: Harro Maas, Maas Harro
• Assisted by: Craufurd Goodwin (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 27.05.2005
• EAN: 9780521827126
• ISBN: 978-0-521-82712-6
• Dimensions: 160 mm x 235 mm x 23 mm
• Series: Historical Perspectives on Mod; Historical Perspectives on Modern Economics
• Subjects: Education and learning > Teaching preparation > Vocational needs; Social sciences, law, business > Business > General, dictionaries; BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economics / Theory, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Economic theory & philosophy, Economic theory and philosophy