Robert Skidelsky: Theory

Robert Skidelsky is Economist and author. Explore interesting quotes on theory.
Robert Skidelsky: 24 quotes0 likes

“A work of genius is a complex object and there is light to be shed about what went into the making of it. Even in the case of scientific and mathematical achievement we can say a great deal about the existing state of knowledge, the problems it failed to address, why those problems were or had become interesting, the particular capacities which the solver brought to their solution. At the other extreme is a work of art which seems to have much more immediate roots in the personal life of the artist or writer. In between is the area in which Keynes worked, which was partly scientific, partly artistic. This gives a wide justification for a biographical approach. As I put it in the introduction to my first volume: 'If underlying Keynesian theory was Keynes's vision of his age, knowledge of his state of mind and the circumstances which formed it is essential, not only in order to understand how he came to see the world as he did, but also in order to pass judgement on the theory itself.”

Robert Skidelsky

John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman (2003), Introduction

“Born in 1883 and dying in 1946, the bulk of Keynes's professional life was framed by two world wars. At the beginning, he was an Edwardian optimist, convinced that automatic progress was steadily enlarging opportunities for more and more people to live the 'good life', as identified by his mentor, G. E. Moore, and his friends of the Bloomsbury Group. He ended his life bequeathing the world a theory, policies and two international institutions (the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) designed to strengthen the foundations of free economy, so as to make it possible again for people to indulge the hopes with which he had grown up. In between, there was catastrophe and retrogression, starting in Europe and spreading to most of the rest of the world.”

Robert Skidelsky

John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman (2003), Introduction

“Keynes was an applied economist who turned to inventing theory because the theory he had inherited could not properly explain what was happening.”

Robert Skidelsky

Source: John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman (2003), Ch. 27. Portraits of an Unusual Economist