PART I. INTRODUCTORY. CHAPTER I. SCOPE AND FUNCTION OF ECONOMICS.* ANY fairly well informed person who takes up the study of economics must be struck by the variety and the conflicting character of doctrines presented by different schools of political economy; and he could not help noticing the difference of viewpoint, taken by various writers, as to what is the proper function and scope of the science of political economy; a difference which necessarily must affect the deductions and the teachings of the respective writers in a marked degree. One class of economists may be credited with a distinct desire to give a moral side, or content, to their theories. These were unquestionably men of strongly humane and kindly instincts, men who saw the widespread misery of the greater number of their fellow beings, the almost universal poverty and degradation of the masses, largely self-inflicted perhaps, but more largely imposed by circumstances, by customs, and by institutions over which the victims have no control; such as the misfortune of sickness or * Any reader of this book who is versed in economics is advised to turn at once to Part II, which presents the author's value theory; since that is the part which, if any, would be of interest to such a reader. |