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A Natural Science Version of Socioeconomic Evolution: Copeland's Essays Are His First Sustained Attempt to Apply His Approach to Economic History
Author(s) -
Millar James R.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
american journal of economics and sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1536-7150
pISSN - 0002-9246
DOI - 10.1111/j.1536-7150.1983.tb01696.x
Subject(s) - polity , economic science , statement (logic) , socioeconomic status , positive economics , sociology , history of economic thought , social science , epistemology , economics , neoclassical economics , political science , law , philosophy , demography , population , politics
A bstract .Morris A. Copeland advanced a theory 50 years ago based on the idea, widely accepted in the social sciences at that time, that the society and its economy and polity are products of socioeconotnic evoltttion. Hence, he reasoned, any theoretical economic statement is temporally and culturally relative. Therefore, he held, the concern of economics as a science is with the way economic activity is now organized as well as how it originated and developed over time in specific cultures. After applying it with history‐making results to the contemporary economy, he now, in his new book of Essays , applies his approach to economic history, achieving an important methodological contribution.