'Let your science be human': Hume's economic methodology
Takeshi Nakano
Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2006, vol. 30, issue 5, 687-700
Abstract:
This essay examines David Hume's economic methodology. The author characterises Hume's understanding of human actions as interactionism. Its key point is that interactions generate the disinterested view of 'the spectator' in the human mind. Hume applies this idea of the disinterested spectator to the position of social scientists in understanding social phenomena. Thus Hume's approach to social science can be regarded as interpretive. The author also points out the difference between Hume's method in social science and historical study. Considering this difference, the author argues that we should refer to Hume's social theory rather than historical works in order to understand his economic methodology. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/cje/bei102 (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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:cambje:v:30:y:2006:i:5:p:687-700
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals
Access Statistics for this article
Cambridge Journal of Economics is currently edited by Jacqui Lagrue
More articles in Cambridge Journal of Economics from Cambridge Political Economy Society Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().