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The Significance of Modern Empiricism for History and Economics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Abbott Payson Usher
Affiliation:
Harvard university

Extract

The relation of theoretical economics to empirical historical analysis has been one of the central problems of economic historians ever since the recognition of economic history as a separate discipline. Recent studies in logic and philosophy, by constructing new frames of meaning for both theory and history, have opened up several avenues for a fresh approach to this and other problems of importance to the historian and the economist.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1949

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References

1 Characteristic sketches of the development of the historical school, from various points of view, will be found in the following works: Gide, Charles and Rist, Charles, Histoire des doctrines économiques depuis les physiocrates jusqu'à nos jours (2d ed.; Paris, 1913, and 7th ed.; Paris, 1947),Google Scholar English translations, 1915 and 1948, Book IV. Ingram, John Kelts, A History of Political Economy (Edinburgh, 1888).Google ScholarLifschitz, Feitel, Die historische Schule der Wirtschaftwissenschaft (Bern, 1914).Google ScholarBelow, Georg von, Probleme der Wirtschaftsgeschichte; cine Einführung in das Studium der Wirtschaftsgeschichte (Tūbingen, 1920)Google Scholar.

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12 Toynbee, Arnold J., Civilization on Trial (New York: Oxford University Press, 1948), p. 17.Google Scholar

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15 The literature on religion is surveyed in the essays of John Murphy collected under the title, Lamps of Anthropology (Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 1943).Google Scholar Other problems and additional literature are covered by Langer in Philosophy in a New Key. It is important t o note the studies of G. Elliot Smith on the development of areas in the brain associated with language: cf., esp. The Evolution of Man.

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29 The issues in probability theory are fully discussed in the Symposium on Probability. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, V, 449532; VI, 11–86, 590–622.Google Scholar Part I, Donald Williams. Cn the derivation of probabilities from frequencies, see pp. 449–84; Nagel, Ernest, “Probability and Non-demonstrative Inference,” pp. 485507;Google ScholarReichenbach, Hans, “Reply to Donald Williams' Criticism of the Frequency Theory of Probability,” pp. 508–12;Google ScholarCarnap, Rudolph, “The Two Concepts of Probability,” pp. 513–32.Google Scholar Parts II and III consist of discussions of the papers in Part I by Henry Margenau, R. von Mises, and Felix Kaufman, in addition to responses to criticisms from the authors of papers in Part I.