William Stanley Jevons: Economics

“In any case I hold that there must arise a science of the development of economic forms and relations.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Preface To The Second Edition, p. 9.
The Theory of Political Economy (1871)

Science

“It is wholly a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to a diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth.”

William Stanley Jevons book The Coal Question

The Coal Question (1865)
Context: It is very commonly urged, that the failing supply of coal will be met by new modes of using it efficiently and economically.... It is wholly a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to a diminished consumption. The very contrary is the truth.

Truth , Idea

“My principal work now lies in tracing out the exact nature and conditions of utility. It seems strange indeed that economists have not bestowed more minute attention on a subject which doubtless furnishes the true key to the problems of economics.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Source: The Theory of Political Economy (1871), Chapter III, Theory of Utility, p. 65.

Nature , Problem

“The theory which follows is entirely based on a calculus of pleasure and pain; and the object of economics is to maximize happiness by purchasing pleasure, as it were, at the lowest cost of pain.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Source: The Theory of Political Economy (1871), Chapter I, Introduction, p. 51.

Pain , Pleasure , Happiness

“The difficulties of economics are mainly the difficulties of conceiving clearly and fully the conditions of utility.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Source: The Theory of Political Economy (1871), Chapter III, Theory of Utility, p. 82.

“It is clear that economics, if it is to be a science at all, must be a mathematical science.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Source: The Theory of Political Economy (1871), Chapter I, Introduction, p. 38.

Mathematics , Science

“PLEASURE and pain are undoubtedly the ultimate objects of the calculus of economics. To satisfy our wants to the utmost with the least effort - to procure the greatest amount of what is desirable at the expense of the least that is undesirable - in other words, to maximize pleasure, is the problem of economics.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Source: The Theory of Political Economy (1871), Chapter III, Theory of Utility, p. 61.

Pain , Pleasure , Problem , Effort

“We shall never have a science of economics unless we learn to discern the operation of law even among the most perplexing complications and apparent interruptions.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Source: The Theory of Political Economy (1871), Chapter IV, Theory of Exchange, p. 110.

Law , Learning , Science

“Among minor alterations, I may mention the substitution for the name political economy of the single convenient term economics. I cannot help thinking that it would be well to discard, as quickly as possible, the old troublesome double-worded name of our science.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Preface To The Second Edition, p. 8.
The Theory of Political Economy (1871)

Thinking , Science , Help

“There are many portions of economical doctrine which appear to me as scientific in form as they are consonant with facts.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

Preface To The First Edition, p. 3.
The Theory of Political Economy (1871)

Appearance

“Among minor alterations, I may mention the substitution for the name political economy of the single convenient term economics.”

William Stanley Jevons The Theory of Political Economy

I cannot help thinking that it would be well to discard, as quickly as possible, the old troublesome double-worded name of our science.
Preface To The Second Edition, p. 8.
The Theory of Political Economy (1871)