Re: Case solved, at last!

[Gunnar Tómasson <gunnar.tomasson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Re. the following:

> How can the following be true:
>
> >In fact, there is nothing mysterious about Say's Law - it
> >restates in terms of Supply in the Factor Market and Demand
> >in the Market for Final Ouput the logical implications of
> >the maximizing attributes of Homo Economicus which underlies
> >all of Economic Science.
>
> When the movement to develop maximising attributes as the
> foundation of all Economic Science took place when Say was
> dead?  The classical political economic Say's law cannot
> conceivably be the working out of the implications of
> an approach to economic theory that did not yet exist.

Comment:

The fact that Say - whose "lucid mind" was hailed by fellow-logician John
Stuart Mill - did not spell out the analytical premises of Say's Law does
not imply that such premises were non-existent.

Only that they were implicit rather than explicit.

As noted earlier, Keynes made the very same point with respect to classical
monetary theory - it was nowhere spelled out in the manner of modern
economic scholarship, leaving researchers no option but to cull the key
elements thereof from the works of the classical authors.

Alas, Keynes did not live to see the publication by the Royal Economic
Society - on Keynes's initiative - of Jeremy Bentham's manuscripts on
monetary issues.  Had he done so, he would have discovered that Bentham did
in fact cull such key aspects of classical monetary thought from Adam
Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' and elaborate them in his working papers.

Gunnar

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce R. McFarling" <ecbm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 1:04 AM
Subject: Re: Case solved, at last!


> How can the following be true:
>
> >In fact, there is nothing mysterious about Say's Law - it
> >restates in terms of Supply in the Factor Market and Demand
> >in the Market for Final Ouput the logical implications of
> >the maximizing attributes of Homo Economicus which underlies
> >all of Economic Science.
>
> When the movement to develop maximising attributes as the
> foundation of all Economic Science took place when Say was
> dead?  The classical political economic Say's law cannot
> conceivably be the working out of the implications of
> an approach to economic theory that did not yet exist.
>
> Further, the logical implications of the maximising
> attributes of "Homo Economicus" can only possibly be
> valid in appropriate microeconomic questions, since
> for macroeconomic issues that involve the characteristics
> of the economic system as a whole, maximising attributes
> alone do not suffice.  Therefore, since Says Law is a
> macro level characterisation, founding it as
>
> >the logical implications of the maximizing attributes of
> >Homo Economicus which underlies all of Economic Science.
>
> is to say that it is without adequate foundation.
>
>
> Virtually,
>
> Bruce McFarling, Newcastle, NSW
> ecbm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>