Remarks on the Relationship Between Economics and Psychology

Abstract

1. The relationship between Economics and Psychology is not a matter which has ever given rise to much dispute among economists. Indeed, it is not a matter to which economists in general have devoted very much attention. The literature of the subject, such as it is, is largely the work of men who have been ignorant of Economics but anxious, for various reasons, to discredit its conclusions. If one wishes to discover what the great economists have thought on this matter, one must look to their practice and their occasional obiter dicta, rather than to any systematic work on the subject.

The following essay was first read as a paper to a small circle composed chiefly of members who were not professional economists. I have preserved the spoken form in order to make quite clear its very modest pretensions. It in no way aspires to be regarded as a systematic treatment of the subject.