Abstract
Political Economy is a product of the Enlightenment. Since the time of Adam Smith, Western thinkers had different ways of understanding of political economy. Various schools of thought held different views of the nature, methodology, aim, scope and the moral and psychological foundations of political economy. Utilitarianism is a very important intellectual tradition in the West. Since the late eighteenth century, it has had great impact on British society and it has influenced the development of humanities and social sciences. The representatives of the school are Jeremy Bentham, James Mill, and John Stuart Mill. This paper examines the philosophical viewpoints of the three thinkers on political economy. It shows that they share some basic convictions of the psychological and moral foundations of political economy. But, with regard to the nature and methodology of political economy, they held very different points of view. Through the analysis of their views, we know more about political economy as a scientific discipline and have a better understanding of the philosophical tradition of classical utilitarianism.
Translated title of the contribution | The Philosophical Foundation, Nature and Methodology of Political Economy: The Viewpoints of Classical Utilitarians |
---|---|
Original language | Chinese (Traditional) |
Pages (from-to) | 33-82 |
Number of pages | 50 |
Journal | 政治與社會哲學評論 = SOCIETAS (TSSCI) |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2004 Sept 1 |