CONCEPTIONS AND METHODS OF ECONOMICS 19 



be in no peculiar sense utilitarian, not more so than are the sciences 

 of minerals, of animals, or of plants. It is the philosophy of the 

 useful, but it is not necessarily, as a body of knowledge, more useful 

 than any other philosophy. Its highest aim is truth rather than 

 dollars, and theory rather than practice. But this does not imply 

 the popular and misleading contrast of theory as something certain 

 to fail, with practice as something sure to succeed; of theory as the 

 fantastic and impossible, with practice as the sane and useful. 

 Theory is truth-seeking, it is explanation, it is philosophy, and true 

 theory is the highest and best expression of the practical. 



Neither is economics as a science to be thought of as useless know- 

 ledge, in contrast with art as its useful application. Science is truth, 

 not wealth; it is knowing, not doing. It has been said that the 

 beautiful is as useful as the useful, and it may likewise be said that 

 nothing has higher utility than truth. In economics more perhaps 

 than in any other branch of human knowledge, the desire for results 

 that can be immediately expressed in dollars tempts from the path 

 of truth, and thus here is the greatest need to hold up the ideal of 

 open-minded, disinterested research. 



The social conception of economics. With broad strokes have 

 been sketched the limits of our subject. Throughout the conceptions 

 and methods of economics is the pervading thought that economics 

 is a social science. The complex evaluation process can be carried 

 on only under social conditions. The judgments, feelings, and senti- 

 ments of men living in social relations must be studied to get an 

 understanding of the resulting valuation of goods. 



As a " social" science, economics must be contrasted with the 

 natural and technical sciences, not so much in the subjects studied, 

 as in the point of view that is taken. When any man, or any group 

 or class of men collate facts for their own benefit, the knowledge 

 gained falls short of science, though it may provide material for 

 the scientist. Each of the subjects in this department must be 

 studied from the nearer standpoint of the technical manager; the 

 economist must view each in turn from the social point of view; 

 he must seek to understand the social functions of the railroad; 

 the motives and the social results of commerce; the origin and social 

 nature of money; the basis and the social effects of public financial 

 measures; the social conditions which have the magic power of 

 transposing a gambling debt into the social boon and blessing of 

 insurance. Economic study is bounded only by the public welfare. 

 The economist must be a devoted servant of the social truth, freeing 

 himself as far as may be from the prejudices of class, and the inter- 

 ests and the passions of the day. 



The social conception of economics is growing. The national 

 studies of Ricardo, of List, and of Carey appear now to have been 



