The Scope and Method of Political Economy

The elder Keynes argues that almost every problem connected with the scope and method of political economy has given rise to conflict of opinion. The resulting controversies have sometimes been bitter. Those readers, who already have any acquaintance with the literature of economic method should be prepared to find that several of the chapters are controversial in character. At the same time, Keynes avoids the tone of a partisan and represents both sides of the argument without prejudice.

John Neville Keynes (1852-1949) was an economist and father to the late John Maynard Keynes. He was also university lecturer in moral science and late fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge as well as late examiner in political economy at the University of London. One of his famous arguments was dividing the idea of Economy into three parts: positive economy, normative economy, and the art of economics. He is most known for his Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic. David Felix is professor emeritus of history in the City University of New York. His research interests include the history of ideas, economic history, and biography. He is the author of Biography of an Idea: John Maynard Keynes and the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Keynes: A Critical Life, Marx as Politician, and other works.

Introduction to the Transaction Edition	p. ix
Preface	p. xvii
Introductory
Nature and importance of the enquiry into the scope and method of political economy	p. 1
The conception of political economy as a theoretical, abstract, and deductive science	p. 9
The conception of political economy as an ethical, realistic, and inductive science	p. 20
The method of political economy cannot adequately be described by any single phrase	p. 28
On the Relation of Political Economy to Morality and Practice
Distinction between economic uniformities, economic ideals, and economic precepts	p. 31
The possibility of studying economic laws or uniformities without passing ethical judgments or formulating economic precepts	p. 37
Grounds for recognising a distinct positive science of political economy, the sole province of which is to establish economic uniformities	p. 46
Applied economics	p. 53
Political economy and ethics	p. 58
Methodological importance of the distinctions indicated in this chapter	p. 61

On Political Economy and Laisser Faire	p. 65
On the Scope of Political Economy Considered as an Art	p. 72
On the Character and Definition of Political Economy regarded as a Positive Science
Political economy and physical science	p. 81
Political economy and psychology	p. 84
Political economy a social as distinguished from a political science	p. 89
Definitions of Wealth and Economic Activity	p. 90
Definition of Political Economy	p. 97

On the Interdependence of Economic Phenomena	p. 98
On the Relation of Political Economy to General Sociology
Conflicting views of the relation between economic science and the general science of society	p. 108
The place of abstraction in economic reasoning	p. 111
Examples of economic problems requiring for their complete solution a realistic treatment	p. 124
Distinction between political economy and other social enquiries	p. 130

On the Distinction between Abstract and Concrete Political Economy	p. 137
On the Distinction between the Statics and the Dynamics of Political Economy	p. 140
On Political Economy and Common Sense	p. 142
On Definition in Political Economy
The problem of definition in political economy	p. 146
Conditions to be satisfied in framing economic definitions	p. 152
Relativity of economic definitions	p. 159
On the Method of Specific Experience in Political Economy
Preliminary functions of observation in economic enquiries	p. 164
Limited scope for experiment in political economy	p. 169
The employment of the method of difference independently of deliberate experiment	p. 178
The method of inductive generalization from a multiplication of instances	p. 190
Limitations of the empirical method	p. 197
On the Deductive Method in Political Economy
Nature of the deductive method	p. 204
The application of the term ôhypotheticalö to economic science	p. 205
Functions of observation in the employment of the deductive method	p. 214
Ricardo's use of the deductive method	p. 222
The premisses of deductive political economy	p. 226
Special modifications of the deductive method	p. 230
On Symbolical and Diagrammatic Methods in Political Economy
Mathematical character of political economy	p. 236
The employment of arithmetical examples	p. 239
Exact numerical premisses not essential to the employment of mathematical methods	p. 240
Advantages resulting from the use of symbolical and diagrammatic methods in political economy	p. 244
On Political Economy and Economic History
Functions of economic history in theoretical investigations	p. 252
Economic theories illustrated by history	p. 255
Economic theories criticized by history	p. 261
Economic theories established by history	p. 263
Functions of economic theory in historical investigations	p. 269
Economic history and the history of economic theories	p. 273

On the Limits of the Validity of Economic Doctrines
The relativity of concrete economic doctrines	p. 281
Undesirability of limiting political economy to the theory of modern commerce	p. 289
In what sense universality may be claimed for the principles of abstract economics	p. 293
On the Conception of Political Economy as a Distinctively Historical Science	p. 296
On Political Economy and Statistics
The claims of statistics to be regarded as a distinct science	p. 310
Statistics regarded as a method	p. 320
The functions of statistics in economic enquiries	p. 324

On some of the Precautions requisite in the Use of Statistics in Economic Reasonings
Conditions of the reliability of statistical data	p. 332
The interpretation of simple statistics	p. 336
The range of statistics	p. 341
The grouping of statistics	p. 344
Index	p. 349
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The Scope and Method of Political Economy

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