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. says J.S Millemphatically,  depends on the laws and customs of society.The rulesby which it is determined are what the opinions and feelings of theruling portion of the community make them, and are very different indifferent ages and countries; and might be still more different, if man-kind so chose (Political Economy, ii.1, § 1).By  the ruling portionof the community we ought here to understand not merely those whohave a voice in framing a country s laws, but also those who mouldpublic opinion and exert an influence on the more] tone of a people.Compare further Mill s Autobiography, p.246, where he speaks ofthe modes of the distribution.of wealth as dependent on human will,and capable therefore of being modified by human effort.At the sametime, a caution should be added against going too far in ascribing anoptional or arbitrary character to the laws of the distribution of wealth.It must not, for instance, be supposed that the sovereign power, whetherdemocratic or otherwise can arbitrarily impose upon a people anyprinciples of distribution it pleases, regardless of the operation ofordinary economic motives and of the economic habits and customswhich have naturally grown up and established themselves in thecommunity. The Scope and Method of Political Economy/17719 When people talk about supply and demand, they sometimes forgetthat these are themselves phenomena depending upon human will,and that among the changes which may lead to modifications in sup-ply or demand are changes in moral conditions.This may be the ease,for instance, if, because the public conscience has been touched, peoplewill not purchase commodities which they believe to have been pro-duced under what they regard as immoral conditions; or if they willnot deal with shops where the employers have the reputation of treat-ing their employees meanly or harshly.The feet that;, at any rate inthe estimation of traders themselves, causes of this kind may operateto a very appreciable extent is strewn by the anxious indignation withwhich some large London firms repudiated certain statements madebefore the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the SweatingSystem (1888) in regard to their manner of paying their workpeople.More than one firm specially called the attention of the Committee tothe feet that they  here being damnified and injured in their businessby reason of the statements which were being made before their lord-ships.20 Compare Professor H.C.Adams in Science Economic Discussion.p.102.21 The question of combining positive and ethical enquiries is a some-what different one from that of combining enquiries that belong, re-spectively to the department of science and art.The two questionshave, however, a good deal in common, and we shall, therefore, inorder to avoid unnecessary repetition, treat them together.The readerwill observe that in the arguments that follow the undesirability some-times of the former, and sometimes of the latter, combination is chieflyhad in view.22 Bacon, in an often quoted passage, comments on the hasty and un-timely eagerness with which men are apt to turn aside from purescience to its practical applications. Whence it comes that, likeAtalanta, they go aside to take up the golden apple, so meanwhileinterrupting their course and inciting victory slip out of their hands.But in the true course of experiment, and the carrying it on to neweffects, the Divine Wisdom and Order are entirely to be taken as ourexamples.Now God on the first day of Creation created only Light,and gave a whole day for that work, and on that day created no ma-terial object.Similarly, in experience of every kind, first the discov-ery of causes and true Axioms is to be made; and light-bringing not 178/John Neville Keynesfruit-bringing experiments to be sought for.But Axioms rightly dis-covered and established supply practical uses not scantily but incrowds; and draw after themselves bands and troops of effects.(Novum Organum, Book i., Aph.70).23 The importance of maintaining the strictly scientific standpoint inthe academic study of political economy is insisted upon by Profes-sor Dunbar as follows:  The investigation of economy law is a strictlyscientific enquiry, as much as the investigation of the law of gravita-tion and the determination of economic law falls within the compe-tence of the university.Indeed, one of the great objects for which theuniversity exists is to train minds for such enquiry and to further theadvance of knowledge in precisely such obscure departments.But onthe mixed principles of legislative policy and expediency, it is not theprovince of the university to pronounce.They indeed involve ques-tions of science, as they involve much else; but their solution is not anact of the scientific judgment.It is, on the contrary, an act of thepolitical judgment, enlightened by the aid of economic science, ofjurisprudence of the study of human nature itself or whatever elsemay serve to clear up the matter in hand [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]

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