The Origins of the a Priori Method in Classical Political Economy: A Reinterpretation
Author(s)
Prasch, Robert E.
Abstract
Emerging literature suggests that classical political economists adopted the methodological views of figures within the Scottish Common Sense school of philosophy. This ‘quasi-rationalist’ approach was formulated by Scottish philosophers in reaction to arguments of Hume against the philosophy of empiricism. This movement was then embraced and adapted for political economy by John R. McCulloch, Jean Baptiste Say and James Mill, and provided its formal expression by Nassau Senior and Richard Whately.
