Some Seventeenth Century Contributions to the Theory of Value

Bibliographic Data

ID9727391
AuthorsMarian Bowley (corresponding author)
Year1963
Volume30
Issue118
Pages122
Publication date1963-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEconomica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0427 • E-ISSN: 1468-0335
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2601457
OpenAlexW2325343919
LanguageEN
Citations received10

An orderly examination of seventeenth century contributions to the theory of value is overdue, and it has considerable importance for the understanding of the approach to problems of value and distribution in the eighteentlh century. Moreover, it has become the fashion to search out even the simplest ideas of utility theory before the nineteenth century and hail their authors as anticipating modern theories; other authors are apt to be ignored or damned as wilful obscurantists. There is usually no examination of the circumstances under which the selected statements emerged, the purposes for which they were made, the tacit assumptions involved, or their antecedents. These raids into the past are often amusing; they give a flavour of erudition, and are the modern economist's equivalent of Latin tags. On the other hand, they contribute little to the understanding of the development of economic analysis. Indeed, they may be misleading, for they are apt to distract attention from the changes in the aspects of the problems of value with which economists have been concerned from time to time, and the reasons for those changes

Economics · Epistemology · Neoclassical economics · Positive economics · Sociology · Value (mathematics) · Computer Science · Economic Theory and Institutions · History · Philosophy