Generalization and Economic Standards 1 1 



seize all, or an unduly large share. Evidently he should not 

 be permitted to do this. It thus appears that the public point 

 of view corresponds to the seeming interests of no individual. 

 Even those persons who have the best of intentions are fallible, 

 shortsighted, and ignorant. The public point of view must 

 be one which takes fully into account the human failings of 

 the age; it is the opinion of a wise person as to the best 

 course of conduct for unwise persons. If all persons were 

 perfectly wise, there would still be a public point of view, un- 

 animously agreed to and acted upon ; and the political economy 

 founded upon it would be an economic description of paradise. 



Taking men as they are, however, the attitude of science to- 

 ward them must change as they themselves change. The fact 

 of this variation of man was not recognized at early periods. 

 It was supposed that the moral sciences could be established 

 as permanent rules, once for all. There has been a long con- 

 flict between those who think that the moral world moves and 

 those who think that it is stationary. 



It will be impossible to choose what is best for the men of 

 to-day, until we know what is true of the mental conditions of 

 the men of to-day. It is, therefore, precisely about this point 

 that most economic investigation takes place. Economists 

 have been called on to do psychological work. They have in- 

 vestigated and analyzed "demand," "choice," "want," "de- 

 sire," "usefulness," "utility," "value," in order to establish, if 

 possible, the public point of view. 



It has, until recently, been common to assume, in a vague 

 way, the personality of the public whose interests are studied. 

 In popular discussion, as already remarked, the public is 

 personified. It is said that free trade or protection is for the pub- 

 lic good. But free-traders evidently exclude a part of the pub- 

 lic, i.e., those carrying on protected industries, from all cou,^,^ 

 sideratiou, and protectionists evidently exclude another large 

 body of the public, i.e., those persons interested in foreign 



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