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THE ECONOMIC PHILOSOPHY OF MONTESQUIEU *
Author(s) -
Devletoglou Nicos E.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
kyklos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.766
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1467-6435
pISSN - 0023-5962
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6435.1969.tb00918.x
Subject(s) - mercantilism , argument (complex analysis) , politics , state (computer science) , philosophy , period (music) , epistemology , positive economics , neoclassical economics , economics , law , political science , aesthetics , mathematics , biochemistry , chemistry , algorithm
SUMMARY The essay is written in the light of Lord K eynes ' unfamiliar view that M ontesquieu is the greatest French economist. The argument emphasizes the turbulent period in European history which inspired the economic philosophy of M ontesquieu . Chronologically, the great eighteenth‐century philosopher is seen as the link between seventeenth‐century mercantilism and the physiocratic doctrines which emerged in France immediately following his death in 1755. Logically, however, M ontesquieu is found to belong to a class of his own. It is suggested that his thought, neither essentially mercantilist nor in any sense geocratic, prepared the ground for the sanest liberal developments which later characterized the European scene. The author is sensitive to the tendency of some to interpret M ontesquieu's comprehensive thought as reflecting certain contradictions. It is accordingly suggested that any inconsistencies flowing from M ontesquieu's preoccupation with the study of political, social and economic phenomena as a whole could reasonably be associated with a society, not a mind, in a state of flux. The paper is concluded with a critical analysis of M ontesquieu's historical method, leading its author to confirm the validity of Lord K eynes ' view.