'Disturbing Causes,' 'Noxious Errors,' and the Theory-Practice Distinction in the Economics of J. S. Mill and W. S. Jevons

Sandra J. Peart

Canadian Journal of Economics, 1995, vol. 28, issue 4b, 1194-1211

Abstract: This paper offers an explanation for why the use of statistical procedures was resisted in economics until late in the nineteenth century. Mill's insistence that the economist, in application, turn attention to 'disturbing causes' and treat each observed outcome as a case study implied that combining observations or using 'wide averages' was inappropriate. By contrast, Jevons argued that the social scientist might reduce causal relationships to the causes of interest and (quantitatively insignificant) 'noxious errors.' His method thus deemphasized the disturbing causes which were a key to classical methodology; in application as well as in theory Jevons urged the social scientists to abstract from disturbing causes.

Date: 1995
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