Economics (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Economics<br><br>When Professor Crampton finished his lecture on Zoology a few weeks ago and it was understood that the social sciences would next be taken up, some one in this audience said: "Now they will begin to talk about what they don't know." Whether my immediate predecessor overheard this remark, I cannot say. If he did he replied to it in a way that it would be vain to try to imitate - by showing that to hear about what is not known may be quite as instructive and even more entertaining than to hear about what is. With Professor Robinson's revelations in regard to the deficiencies of History still ringing in my ears, like a call to the confessional, I have no desire to make extravagant claims for my subject. We economists do still talk about what we don't know. We have reached a stage, however, when with clear utilitarian purpose we talk more and more about what we should like to know, a good deal about what we hope to know, and a little, a saving little about what we think we do know.<br><br>Economics, or Political Economy, is the social science which treats of all of the interests and activities connected with the mundane task of earning a living. It is the social science of business. This definition, accepted in substance, if not in form, by all present-day economists, was reached only after prolonged discussion.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.