Terence Wilmot Hutchison

Terence Wilmot Hutchison FBA (August 13, 1912 – October 6, 2007) was born in Bournemouth and took his BA at the University of Cambridge in 1934. After World War II he began teaching at the London School of Economics, but he moved to the University of Birmingham in the 1950s to serve as Mitsui Professor of Economics from 1956 until his retirement in 1978.

Contributions to history and methodology of economics

Terence Hutchison's often sharp tone in methodological controversies earned him the epithet of "official curmudgeon of the economics world - irritating everyone from the powerful to the meek" [See his profile at the [http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/home.htm History of Economic Thought website] ] . His famous 1938 treatise, "The Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory", was an early attempt at bringing logical positivism into economics - claiming that as long as economics rested on a hypothetical-deductive edifice, it remained a body of empty tautologies [.

Years later he commented that while the book was "in many ways a sceptical work by the standards of 1938, its optimistic 'naturalism' seems now indefensible" (1977, p. 151)] . In short, Hutchison called for the formulation of testable empirical hypothesis.

It was precisely this tome that prompted Frank Knight to essay his famous ruminating (and fiercely critical) response, "`What is Truth' in Economics" (1940) (which might explain, at least in part, Hutchison's perhaps somewhat over-laudatory treatment of Knight's rival, Jacob Viner).

Hutchison entered another famous duel with Fritz Machlup in 1956 when Machlup attempted to reconcile economic practice with logical positivism - a reconciliation Hutchison refused to acknowledge and for which he earned the label of "Ultra-Empiricist".

In his years at the LSE he wrote his first major contribution to the history of economic thought: "A Review of Economic Doctrines 1870 - 1929" (1953), an unusual work (at least for Anglo-American writers) for the deep knowledge the author displayed of continental economics literature, and for the distinctly macroeconomic approach to economic problems. In the following decades he wrote a considerable number of articles in 17^th and 18^th century economists, as well as a comprehensive monography on this period in "Before Adam Smith: the emergence of political economy" (1988). Hutchison has served as one of the most consistent and careful recorders of the history of economic thought and his incisive and often provocative insights in economic methodology have long accompanied the development of the discipline. Time still had not yet mellowed him and his repeated fights with the Austrians and Neo-Ricardians had not worn away his sharp wit, but for some the sometimes bitter tone may occasionally have obscured his many valuable contributions.

References

Publications

*"A Note on Tautologies and the Nature of Economic Theory", 1935, "RES"
*"Theoretische Ökonomie als Sprachsystem", 1937, "ZfN"
*"Expectation and Rational Conduct", 1937, "ZfN"
*"Note on Uncertainty and Planning", 1937, "RES"
*"The Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory", 1938 (repr. with new introduction 1965)
*"Reply to Professor Knight", 1941, "JPE"
*"Some Questions About Ricardo", 1952, "Economica"
*"Ricardo's Correspondence", 1953, "Economica"
*"James Mill and the Political Education of Ricardo", 1953, "Cambridge Journal of Economics"
*"A Review of Economic Doctrines, 1870-1929", 1953 (repr. 1996).
*"Professor Machlup on Verification in Economics", 1956, "Southern EJ"
*"Jeremy Bentham as an Economist", 1956, "EJ"
*"Methodological Prescriptions in Economics: a reply", 1960, "Economica"
*"`Positive' Economics and Policy Objectives", 1964 (repr. 2003).
*"Testing Economic Assumptions: a comment", 1966, "JPE"
*"Economics and Economic Policy in Britain, 1946-1966", 1968.
*"Economists and Economic Policy in Britain after 1870", 1969, "HOPE"
*"Knowledge and Ignorance in Economics", 1977.
*"On Revolutions and Progress in Economic Knowledge", 1978.
*"Review of Hayek", 1979, "EJ"
*"The Politics and Philosophy of Economics: Marxians, Keynesians and Austrians", 1981.
*"Turgot and Smith", 1982, in Bordes and Morange, "Turgot, Economiste et Administrateur"
*"The Politics and Philosophy in Jevons' Political Economy", 1982, "Manchester School "
*"From Dismal Science to Positive Economics: A century-and-a- half of progress?", 1983, in Wiseman (ed.), "Beyond Positive Economics"
*"A Methodological Crisis?", 1983, in Wiles and Routh (eds.), "Economics in Disarray"
*"On the Interpretation and Misinterpretation of Economists", 1985, in Roggi (ed.), "Gli Economisti e la politica economia"
*"Before Adam Smith: the emergence of political economy", 1988
*"Changing Aims in Economics", 1992 (reprinted in "On the Methodology of Economics and the Formalist Revolution", 2000).
*"Ricardian Politics: Another version of Ricardian hagiography", 1992, "HER"
*"Hayek and Modern Austrian Methodology: Comment on a non- refuting refutation", 1992, "Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology"
*"Review of Jacob Viner", 1993, "European Review of HET"
*"The Uses and Abuses of Economics: Contentious essays on history and method", 1994.
*"On the Methodology of Economics and the Formalist Revolution", 2000.

econdary sources

*"Hutchison, Terence Wilmot" in "", Eatwell, Milgate, Newman (eds.), 1987.
*Blaug, Mark (1980, new ed. 1993). "The Methodology of Economics, or How Economists Explain".
*Caldwell, Bruce (1998). "Hutchison, Terence W." in: John Davis, D. Wade Hands and U. Mäki "The Handbook of Economic Methodology".
*Coats, A.W. (1983). "T.W. Hutchison as a Historian of Economics" in: "Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol.1, The Craft of the Historian of Economic Thought"

External links

* [http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/twhutchis.htm Profile of Terence W. Hutchison] at the [http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/home.htm History of Economic Thought website] .
* [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article3084286.ece Obituary of Terence W. Hutchison by prof. Mark Blaug]