"It was doubtless inevitable that economics, when it grew up to be a huge and highly complex subject, should leave the home of its childhood and set up house for itself. I do not know whether this separation from moral science has been harmful to Cambridge economics, but I am inclined to think that it may have been unfortunate in certain respects for Cambridge philosophy. It is noteworthy that since those days philosophy in Cambridge has been almost completely out of touch with general history, with political theory and sociology, and with jurisprudence. This has no doubt saved it from many temptations to vague and pretentious verbiage, and from the danger of philosophizing with one eye on contemporary politics. But it has involved the complete neglect of much that is a proper subject for philosophic analysis and speculation, and which has in fact always formed an important part of philosophy in other places and in Cambridge itself at other times."
Friday 28 October 2016
On the relation between Philosophy and Economics
From p.15-16 of "The Local Historical Background of Contemporary Cambridge Philosophy", in C. A. Mace (ed.) (1957) British Philosophy in the Mid-Century (London: G. Allen and Unwin) pp. 13-61.
