528 POPULAR sell-: SC1-: MUXTIILY 



UNCONSCIOUS ASSUMPTIONS IN ECONOMICS.* 



By Rev. \V. CUNNINGHAM, D.D., D.S.C. 



A MONG 

 ^--*~ Econi 



the members of any such gathering as a meeting of the 

 ■*--*- Economic Section of the British Association there are likely 

 to be some who come to give information and some who come to get it. 

 In the latter class may, I am sure, be included all those habitues of the 

 section who have seized the opportunity which the visit of the associa- 

 tion affords, with the view of learning something about the present 

 condition and prospects of the enormous territory which we hope to be 

 able to traverse. It may not be so to the .same extent in all sections. 

 Those who come from the great chemical and physical laboratories of 

 Europe may have much to say as to the result of experimental investi- 

 gation, which they can carry on under more favorable conditions than 

 are at present generally available to students in South Africa. But 

 in economics there is no room for experimental inquiries consciously 

 undertaken in the interest of the advancement of science. The issues 

 are too serious; the conditions on which they depend can not be ar- 

 ranged for the convenience of the inquirer. Economics is a science of 

 observation, not of experiment; and we are fortunate to find ourselves 

 in specially favorable circumstances for noting and appreciating the 

 results of investigations which have been made by skilled observers on 

 the spot. 



While we gratefully acknowledge the pains that have been taken 

 here in preparing papers for this section, we may yet feel that the task 

 we are setting ourselves as visitors is not an easy one. There are few 

 harder things in this world than to preserve a genuinely receptive 

 frame of mind, and hold the judgment in suspense when we are 

 brought face to face with the unexpected. There are so many assump- 

 tions we all make, and so many canons of criticism we have habitually 

 accepted, that are not easily laid aside, even temporarily. ' The worst 

 use of theory,' as a great Cambridge professor has warned us, ' is to 

 make men insensible to fact/t and the danger may be most real when 

 we are not aware of the influence exercised by some hypothesis which 

 we habitually make. 



I. The popular discussion of economic problems teems with uncon- 

 scious hypotheses, which tend to obscure the facts of the case. Mill 



* Address by the president to the Economic Science and Statistics Section 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, South Africa, 1005. 

 t Lord Acton, English Historical Revieio, 1.. ]>. 40. 



