The creator, human conduct and the maximisation of utility in Gossen's economic theory

Philippe Steiner

European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2011, vol. 18, issue 3, pages 353-379

Abstract: Herman Gossen's book is usually praised for its contribution to the mathematisation of economics and the obsessive presence of religious references is unduly left out. This paper takes both dimensions seriously and explains how the religious emphasis is crucial for a historical and theoretical understanding of Gossen's view on maximisation of utility and the government of rational and selfish human beings.

Keywords: Economic theology; Gossen; homo œconomicus; maximisation of utility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09672567.2011.588000 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:18:y:2011:i:3:p:353-379

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/subscription.asp

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of the History of Economic Thought is edited by Portugal JosÈ LuÌs Cardoso Editor-Workplace-NameL Universidade TÈcnica de Lisboa, Gilbert Faccarello, Heinz D. Kurz and Antoin E. Murphy

More articles in European Journal of the History of Economic Thought from Taylor and Francis Journals
Series data maintained by Michael McNulty ().