论经济科学的性质和意义 (1932)

《论经济科学的性质和意义》（原书名：An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science）是莱昂内尔·罗宾斯出版于1932年（第二版于1935年，共158页）的著作。该书寻求更准确地定义一个作为科学的经济学，以引出其实质性的含义。他认为经济分析是相对于基于最现代实践的“特定问题的被接受的解”的。罗宾斯虽然并未主张其独创性，但他还是表达希望是已经在一些“并非总是清楚地被阐明的”诸原理中的少数几点上给出了其解释力。（1935年，pp. xiv-xvi）

主要命题

罗宾斯提出定义并为作为科学的经济学而辩护：

1. 是对具有不同选择的“作为各结果与各有限预算之间关系的人类行为”的研究（1935年，p. 16.）

2. 关于行为的侧面（基于稀缺性的），而不是关于行为的特定种类（p. 17）

3. 在各结果中中立，但仅对于那些仰赖有限预算的任意结果。（p. 24）

4. 不能通过观察和内省来确定，对于任意个人，边际效用递减法则 意味着从富者到穷者的收入再分配会提升总的效用（p. 137），因此从科学领域中排除了个人之间效用的可比性。

5. 区别于价值判断 (p. 148).

影响

罗宾斯的关于经济学的定义在今天的各种教科书中已经并不鲜见，有些是反映了其用法的不同表述。他的这篇《论经济科学的性质和意义》在1932年到1960年是有关经济方法论和经济哲学方面引述最多的著作之一。其中所属的主要特征已经被广泛接受了，至少也是作为了后续分析的出发点。（Corry, 1987, p.207）

Lionel Robbins' Essay (1932, 1935, 2nd ed., 158 pp.) sought to define more precisely economics as a science and to derive substantive implications. Analysis is relative to "accepted solutions of particular problems" based on best modern practice as referenced, especially including the works of Philip Wicksteed, Ludwig von Mises, and other Continental European economists. Robbins disclaims originality but expresses hope to have given expository force on a very few points to some principles "not always clearly stated" (1935, pp. xiv-xvi)

Major propositions

Robbins develops and defends several propositions about the relation of scarcity to economics and of economic theory to science, including the following.

"Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses." (1935, p. 15)

"Economics is not about certain kinds of behaviour," but "a certain aspect of behaviour, the form imposed by the influence of scarcity." (pp. 16–17)

"Economics is entirely neutral between ends; ... in so far as any end is dependent on scarce means, it is germane to the preoccupations of the economist." (p. 24)

"[W]ealth is not wealth because of its substantial properties. It is wealth because it is scarce." (p. 47)

"The Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility ..., whether true or false, can never be verified by observation or introspection." ... [Nor does it] "justify the inference that transferences from rich to poor would increase total satisfaction... Interesting as a development of an ethical postulate, [such an effect] does not at all follow from the positive assumptions of pure theory." (pp. 137, 141)

Economics as science is about "ascertainable facts" of the positive as distinct from normative (ethical) judgments on economic policy. (p. 148).

The definition of economics above has been described as "central to the arguments presented" that followed in the Essay and as redefining economics in marginalist terms and thereby "destroy[ing] the view classical economists had of their science." Robbins argued that, at a certain stage in the development of the subject, an insufficiently restrictive and unifying definition multiplies activities of economists away from filling in explanatory gaps of the theory and solving problems posed by the subject (pp. 3–4).

The Essay has been described as different from earlier writings on economic methodology in generating a range of tightly argued, radical implications from a simple definition, for example in admitting an aspect of behaviour (rather than a list of behaviours) but not limiting the subject-matter of economics, provided that the influence of scarcity impinges on these (pp. 16–17). The broad behavioural definition is credited for its consistency with the expanding boundaries of economics decades later. In this Robbins both narrows the definition of economics, thereby demonstrating the usefulness of deduction, and opens up the subject-matter of economics.

Influence

Robbins's Essay is one of the most-cited works on the methodology and philosophy of economics for the period 1932–1960. Arguments therein have been widely accepted on the demarcation of economics as science from discussion of recommendations on economic policy. In that period, economists started referring to Robbins' definition of economics therein as generally accepted, along with continuing controversy that accompanied its blending into economics texts. With the application of the economic methods to social and other "non-economic" problems, acceptance of Robbins' expansive subject-matter definition in economics texts increased its prominence.