The Making of Economic Society [antikvár]

IntroductionIt is a little hard for us to imagine, but in the third decade ofnineteenth century England, a knowledge of economics waspart of a proper young lady's accomplishments. It was not a very profound knowledge (mainly it was gained from reading Miss Harriet Martineau's tracts), and it was not always very good economicsbut that is not the point. In those days, economics was not only esteemed as important, but it was actually a popular study.Today, alas, no such happy reputation precedes our subject. Not that the public estimation of economics has diminished; on the contrary, everyone admits that it was never more important, etc. But the very word has come to shed a pall. The student approaches his first economics course with apprehension; the layman is convinced that the whole thing is hopelessly beyond him.In a way, both student and layman are quite right in thinking of economics as a difficult subject. When Auguste Comte classified the sciences of mankind in his general scheme of philosophy, he placed mathematics and the natural sciences at a lower stage of complexity than sociology or economics. This was not because Comte consideredxi