The rise of political economy as a science : methodology and the classical economists / Deborah A. Redman.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [377]-446) and indexes.

I. The Heritage. 1. Introduction: Scope, Purpose, and Limitations of this Study. 2. The Philosophical Background: Thinkers Who Influenced the Classical Economists. Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and the Philosophy of Science. Rene Descartes (1596-1650): Mathematical Scientist. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): Philosophizing vs. Experimentation. Isaac Newton (1642-1727): The Deductive-Mathematical Experimental Method. John Locke (1632-1704), Epistemological Uncertainty, and the "Historical, Plain Method" David Hume (1711-1776): Pioneer in Moral Philosophy. Dugald Stewart (1753-1828) and Scottish Philosophy of Science. Sir John F. W. Herschel (1792-1871): Model Philosopher. William Whewell (1794-1866), Gentleman of Science. 3. Science in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Britain. The Emergence of Moral Philosophy. The Science of Man. The Method of Analysis and Synthesis. The Clock Metaphor. Social Engineering and the Diffusion of Economic Knowledge. The Birth of Econometrics.

4. A Short History of Induction. Bacon's Theory of Induction. A Closer Look at Newton's Third Step. The Myth of Causality and Its Consequences. Induction in the Hands of the Scots. Induction's Heyday: Herschel, Mill, and Whewell. Jevons and the Decline of Induction. The New Approach to Induction: Probability Theory. Karl Popper: Induction as Myth -- II. Classical Economic Methodology. 5. Adam Smith and His "Newtonian Method" The Tie to Newton. Departures from Newtonian Method. The Significance of the Essay "The History of Astronomy" Tying Up Odds and Ends: Other Clues to Smith's Method. The Legitimation of Science in Smith's System. Lessons for Today's Economist. 6. Malthus and Ricardo: Opposing or Complementary Methods? Malleable Scientific Reputations. Education and Accomplishments. The Methodological Dialogue. Significance and Legacy of the Malthus-Ricardo Dialogue. 7. John Stuart Mill: Last of the Newtonians.

The Historical Setting: Interest in Philosophy of Science Awakened. Mill's Analysis of the Methods of Natural Science. The Development of a Method of Social Science. The Inexact Science of Political Economy. Mill of Specific Methodological Issues in Political Economy. Mill's Place in the History and Philosophy of Science. 8. Concluding Remarks. App. Science and The Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1759.

The Rise of Political Economy as a Science opens with a review of the epistemological ideas that inspired the classical economists: the methodological principles of Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Newton, Locke, Hume, Stewart, Herschel, and Whewell. These principles were influential not just in the development of political economy, but in the rise of social science in general.

The author then examines science in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, with a particular emphasis on the all-important concept of induction. Having laid the necessary groundwork, she proceeds to a history and analysis of the methodologies of four economist-philosophers - Adam Smith, Robert Malthus, David Ricardo, and J. S. Mill - selected for their historical importance as founders of economics and for their common Scottish intellectual lineage.

Concluding remarks put classical methodology into a broader historical perspective.