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93 It may be said that common sense of the kind here had in view is of
a somewhat rare type; still it is entitled to the name of common sense,
in so far as it is hardly amenable to scientific rule, and is not to be
acquired by scientific training.
94 Literary Remains of Richard Jones, edited by Whewell, p. 598.
95 Word-splitting and definition-extending, says Professor Thorold
Rogers, is a most agreeable occupation. It does not require knowl-
edge. It is sufficient to be acute. Persons can spin out their definitions
The Scope and Method of Political Economy/199
from their inner consciousness by the dozen, aye, and catch the un-
wary in the web (Economic Interpretation of History, p. viii).
96 Principles of Political Economy, 1901, p. 59.
97 Fallacious theories of wages to take but one example may be at
least partly ascribed to the difficulty that has always been found in
precisely analysing the conception of capital, and keeping clearly
before the mind the result of that analysis.
98 Whewell remarks that though definition may be subservient to a
right explication of our conceptions, it is not essential to that process.
It is absolutely necessary to every advance in our knowledge, that
those by whom such advances are made should possess clearly the
conceptions which they employ: but it is by no means necessary that
they should unfold these conceptions in the words of a formal defini-
tion (Novum Organon Renovatum, p. 38). It is quite true that it is
possible to have clear notions without definitions clothed in definite
language. We have, for example, a clear conception of capital, if we
can analyse with precision and accuracy the functions of capital in
industry; and it is not absolutely essential to this, that an exact defi-
nition of capital should be constructed. At the same time, the ultimate
test of the clearness of any conception would seem to be the ability to
express in clear and definite language the corresponding definition.
99 Novum Organon Renovatum, p. 40.
100 Definitions is Political Economy, p. 4.
101 Thus to take a simple illustration the ambiguity of the term
value leads up to a discussion of the relation between exchange-value
and utility. Again, the ambiguity of the expression value of money
suggests the enquiry how changes in the general purchasing power of
money are related to changes in the rate of discount.
102 If, for instance, it is assumed that the normal value of freely pro-
duced commodities is determined by their cost of production, then
the definition of cost of production involves questions of fact. Simi-
larly, if in defining wealth, it is assumed that whatever can be bought
and sold is wealth; or if in defining a market, it is assumed that the
Money Market is properly so called.
103 Compare Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce
during the Early and Middle Ages, p. 17. In the sixteenth century,
says Dr Cunningham, the change in the use of certain terms is very
remarkable; and if we attend to it, we are enabled to realise the ex-
traordinary transformation which was then taking place. A social
200/John Neville Keynes
change may be said to have been completed when it found expression
in a new term, or fixed a new connotation on an old one. The use of
an historical method of definition is advocated by Professor Nicholson
in his address on Political Economy as a Branch of Education.
104 Compare Wagner, Grundlegung der politischen Oekonomie, 1892
92.
105 See Mr W. E. Johnson s article on the Method of Political Economy
in Mr Palgrave s Dictionary of Political Economy. Mr Johnson gives
the following scheme of the chief departments of economic science
from the methodological standpoint:
Positive Economics
Descriptive Constructive
Formal Narrative Inductive Deductive
Definitions Divisions Chronological Comparative Pure Mixed
Pure Mixed.
It will be observed that the division given under the head of constructive
economics relate to the method of reasoning adopted, which may be
predominantly inductive or predominantly deductive, whilst in each
case a mixed method is recognised in which inductive is modified by
deduction, or deduction by induction.
106 Compare Dr Cunningham s pamphlet on Political Economy treated
as an Empirical Science. The somewhat similar doctrines held by the
more extreme members of the German historical school will be dis-
cussed in greater detail subsequently.
107 It has been already mentioned that Wagner recognises three theo-
retical problems in political economy, namely, the description of eco-
nomic phenomena, their arrangement under types, and the explana-
tion of the causes upon which they depend. He adds, however, that
the three problems really constitute three stages of a single problem,
and that they must not only be all of them as far as possible solved,
but also in the order in which they are given. Political economy, he
goes on to say, would be, if still a science, at least no independent
science, but only a part of historical science and descriptive statis-
tics, if in accordance with certain tendencies of the historical
school it were to limit itself to the first of the three problems. The
second and third really constitute the special and chief problems of
The Scope and Method of Political Economy/201
political economy, for the solution of which the first was merely pre-
paratory, and it is only when the second and third problems are reached
that political economy becomes a really independent and theoretical
science (Grundlegung der politischen Oekonomie. 1892, 58).
108 We sometimes hear of unintentional experiments, such as a rail-
way accident or a famine. Experiment, however, in the logical sense
implies something that is brought about deliberately and of set pur-
pose: it is not merely any striking event from the investigation of
which special insight may be gained. The conditions under which
such phenomena as the above may serve as substitutes for logical
experiment will be considered later on.
109 Illustrations of both the above varieties of the method of difference
will be found later on. There is a third variety, in which the given
cause operates in conjunction with other causes, whose nature and
individual effects are accurately known both in kind and amount. In
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