Heterogenesis of ends: Herbert Spencer and the Italian economists

Sunna, Claudia; Mosca, Manuela

doi:10.1080/09672567.2016.1148753

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…18 In his view, it was possible to obtain true economic deductions from the hedonistic hypothesis, and thus to offer accurate practical prescriptions, since the hedonistic hypothesis was realistic. Pantaleoni found inspiration for his realism in Herbert Spencer's reading of Darwin's principle of natural selection, an idea that figured prominently in his thought (Mosca 2015;Sunna and Mosca 2017). In Pantaleoni's view, the hedonistic hypothesis was realistic because the ends of homo oeconomicus necessarily coincided with the self-preservation of the individual and the species.…”

Section: Positive Views On Economic Man and Homo Oeconomicusmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…150–151) but only when the latter “tends exclusively to maximise his happiness, regardless of that of others” (Pantaleoni 1898, p. 20). Pantaleoni underlined that homo œconomicus “should first make sure of his own preservation and more perfect development, before he can benefit the species” (Pantaleoni 1898, p. 22; see Sunna and Mosca 2017, pp. 38–39).…”

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THE BIRTH OF HOMO ŒCONOMICUS: THE METHODOLOGICAL DEBATE ON THE ECONOMIC AGENT FROM J. S. MILL TO V. PARETO

Bee

Desmarais-Tremblay

2022

J Hist Econ Thought

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This paper proposes a genealogy of the concept of homo œconomicus as it emerged from the methodological debate on the economic agent of political economy. If John Stuart Mill gave birth to the economic man in his 1836 essay “On the Definition of Political Economy,” he certainly did not baptize him. The expression was introduced by Francis A. Walker after Mill passed away in the 1870s. Economic man acquired its Latin name of homo œconomicus under the pen of French Catholic economist Claudio Jannet in 1878. Yet, only at the end of the century did Maffeo Pantaleoni (1889) proudly reclaim homo œconomicus as a building block of pure economics. In reaction to the evolutionary hedonism of Pantaleoni, Vilfredo Pareto then cleansed the concept of homo œconomicus and realized the Millian project of an abstract science based on an economic agent.

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Section: Positive Views On Economic Man and Homo Oeconomicusmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%