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Harvard. O.H. Taylor’s Final Exam for Intellectual Background of Economic Thought, 1941

 

 

For today’s posting I have transcribed the questions from the final examination along with the course description for the one-semester undergraduate course taught by Overland Hume Taylor at Harvard during the Spring term of 1940-41. The course syllabus and reading assignments  for “The Intellectual Background of Economic Thought” were posted in Economics in the Rear-View Mirror earlier.

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Course Description

Economics 1b 2hf. The Intellectual Background of Economic Thought. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 11. Dr. O. H. Taylor.

A critical study of the kinds of work in economics represented by the main tradition and by Marx, Veblen, and others—with attention to their methodologies, associated political faiths or ideologies, and underlying philosophies.

Source: Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXXVII, No. 51 (August 15, 1940). Division of History, Government, and Economics—Containing an Announcement for 1940-41, p. 54.

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Final Examination
The Intellectual Background of Economic Thought
Dr. Overton Hume Taylor

1940-41
HARVARD UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS 1b2

Answer six questions, including any three of the first four, any two of the next three (5, 6, and 7) and No. 8. Devote approximately ½ hour to each question.

  1. “The original founders of economic liberalism could believe that economic liberty and economic ‘natural laws’ would tend to maximize the economic welfare of society, because they believed that enlightened, free men would create a society in which, substantially, all institutions, public policies, and private conduct would conform to principle of ethical ‘natural law’ or intrinsic justice.”
    Explain and discuss the outlook referred to in that statement—making use, in your discussion, of the results of your reading of O. H. Taylor, Sabine, and Becker, and your own conclusions.
  2. “The intellectual trend in the liberal world into positivism, or science-worship, has been enfeebling and confusing the ethical convictions at the basis of liberalism, and transforming the latter from its old self into a half-way house on the way either to socialism or to fascism—in any case, a program of authoritarian ‘social engineering’ which attempts to use the social sciences in a way that involves the sacrifice of liberal, ethical ideals.”
    Write out your own reactions to this thesis, advanced in the lectures. Your instructor will definitely value intelligent, adverse criticism quite as highly as comment showing full agreement.
  3. In the light of the lectures and your reading of Spann and other relevant assignments, discuss the nature of romanticism, and the question of its role in the development of German economic and political thought of the kind leading (?) to the outlook of the Nazis.
  4. “While the basis of Marxism includes a vigorous, ethical idealism, the influence of this component in the outlook of the Marxists is largely nullified by the contrary effects of their doctrines of historical, economic determinism; of the complete ‘relativity’ of all ethical ideas to the economic situations and interests of their adherents; and of the necessity and legitimacy of Machiavellian tactics in the struggle to achieve socialism.”
    Develop your own comments on this, with the aid of your reading of “The Meaning of Marx” by S. Hook and others, and of any other knowledge you may have about Marxism.
  5. Discuss and compare the chief hindrances to realization of liberal-democratic ideals which exist today under private capitalism, and those which you think would or might exist if we had “socialized” all important means of production and were trying to operate a fully socialist economy.
  6. Develop your comments on the chapter or essay which interested you the most, either in Brinton’s “English Political Thought in the Nineteenth Century,” or in “The Trend of Economics” by Tugwell and others.
  7. Write up your criticism of the Simons pamphlet “A Positive Program for Laissez Faire.”
  8. Write a critical review of Robbins’ “The Nature and Significance of Economic Science”—or of the essays by F. H. Knight which you read, if you read them instead of Robbins.

Final. 1941.

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28, Box 5). Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Papers Printed for Final Examinations: History, History of Religions, … , Economics, … , Military Science, Naval Science, June 1941.

Image Source: Overton Hume Taylor in Harvard Album, 1952.