ABSTRACT
Just as Kepler was inspired by the doctrine of harmony in the spheres to discover the laws which govern the orbits of the planets, so the early economists were inspired by the doctrine that there is a harmony of interests in society to formulate economic laws. This doctrine runs through the development of economic theory and pervades the structure of its language and thought. Recent controversies in welfare economics have been conducted without much regard to their historical antecedents. The intentions and the arguments in these controversies are essentially repetitions of classical and neo-classical controversies. The critics of the compensation principle like some early socialists and other critics of classical theory, stressed that distribution cannot be ignored when efficiency is under discussion. The critics have therefore always tended to stress the institutional background and limitations of the activities in which harmony was supposed to prevail. Many critics, however, accepted fundamentally the classical doctrine of harmony and social value.
