Considerations on the Fundamental Principles of Pure Political Economy

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Considerations on the Fundamental Principles of Pure Political Economy Considerations on the Fundamental Principles of Pure Political Economy Considerations on the Fundamental Principles of Pure Political Economy (Considerazioni sui principi fondamentali dell’economia pura) was originally published as a series of five articles in the Giornale degli Economisti between May 1892 and October 1893. They were the first systematic representation of Vilfredo Pareto’s contribution to pure economics and their publication in this volume in English closes a serious gap in the knowledge of the work of one of the founders of modern economic science. In the book, Pareto deals with an impressively wide range of subjects including the nature and the limits of the new theories of marginalist econ- omics, the use of mathematics in economics, the problem of method and the hedonistic hypothesis, the concept of homo œconomicus and, last but not least, the concept of final degree of utility. These reflections make the Considerations an assessment of the state of the new economic theories expounded in a mathematical form at the beginning of the 1890s. These papers have exerted a great deal of influence in the sub- sequent development of economic theory. As such, the volume can be con- sidered required reading for all serious economists across the world. Roberto Marchionatti is Professor of Economics at the University of Torino, Italy. He has been a Visiting Scholar in Economics at New York University and at the University of Cambridge, UK. Fiorenzo Mornati is Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Torino, Italy. He has been Assistant de Recherche at the University of Lausanne (Centre Walras-Pareto), Switzerland. Routledge Studies in the History of Economics 1 Economics as Literature 12 Austrian Economics in Debate Willie Henderson Edited by Willem Keizer, Bert Tieben and Rudy van Zijp 2 Socialism and Marginalism in Economics 1870–1930 13 Ancient Economic Thought Edited by Ian Steedman Edited by B. B. Price 3 Hayek’s Political Economy The socio-economics of order 14 The Political Economy of Social Steve Fleetwood Credit and Guild Socialism Frances Hutchinson and Brian Burkitt 4 On the Origins of Classical Economics 15 Economic Careers Distribution and value from William Economics and economists in Britain Petty to Adam Smith 1930–1970 Tony Aspromourgos Keith Tribe 5 The Economics of Joan Robinson 16 Understanding ’Classical’ Economics Edited by Maria Cristina Marcuzzo, Studies in the long-period theory Luigi Pasinetti and Alesandro Heinz Kurz and Neri Salvadori Roncaglia 6 The Evolutionist Economics of Léon 17 History of Environmental Economic Walras Thought Albert Jolink E. 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