Science and Morality in William Stanley Jevons's Thought

This open access book deals with the ideas and work of William Stanley Jevons (1835 1882). Jevons is now mainly known as an economist. His revision of the theory of value and the definition of the principle of decreasing marginal utility gained him a prominent place in the history of economic thought. However, Jevons s oeuvre goes far beyond his contribution to economics. He was a logician and a natural scientist. Jevons was always a godly man, and his religious beliefs, far from being a merely private aspect, were highly influential in his works. He was interested in evolutionism, and especially in Herbert Spencer s philosophy. This book explores Jevons s work as a Victorian social scientist, who was committed to understand the natural laws regulating human society in order to improve it. The book explores several different facets of Jevons's thought, such as: his religious views, in connection with scientific method and study of probability; the link between nineteenth-century Unitarianism, the branch of Dissent of which Jevons was part, and his moral and political thought; the role played by Herbert Spencer s thought in Jevons s political philosophy; the relevance of his religious views, philosophy of logic, moral and political thought to his economic theory.