Thanks to V. L. Elliot, a member of the faculty of the National Intelligence University in Washington, D.C., Economics in the Rear-View Mirror has been provided the following English translation of Joseph Schumpeter’s chapter on methodological individualism from his 1908 book Das Wesen und Hauptinhalt der theoretischen Nationalökonomie.
1908_Schumpeter_Ch6_MethodologicalIndividualism_1980EngTranslation
Ellliot writes:
[The chapter] was published in 1980 with the permission of E. B. Schumpeter, the author’s widow by an Institute in Belgium that subsequently ceased operations. The publishing run appears to have been a short one. Thanks to the great determination and professionalism of a wonderful librarian, Ms. Denise Campbell, I was able to acquire the PDF after a ten year search that began when I read Professor Klein’s contribution to a series of volumes on the work of Hayek (Hayek wrote the introduction to the pamphlet).
Professor Peter Klein described the book and pamphlet that is contained in the PDF file on his web site in 2009:
“The book made quite a splash in the German-speaking world and Schumpeter received many requests for an English translation, but he wouldn’t allow it, or to have the book reprinted in German. In 1980 a single chapter, “Methodological Individualism,” was translated and published in pamphlet form, with a short introduction by Hayek…. The pamphlet has been very difficult to get until now.”
In the meantime an English translation of the entire book by Bruce A. McDaniel has been published as The Nature and Essence of Economic Theory by Transaction Publishers in 2010.
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If you find this posting interesting, here is the complete list of “artifacts” from the history of economics I have assembled. You can subscribe to Economics in the Rear-View Mirror below. There is also an opportunity for comment following each posting….
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