ABSTRACT
Political economy or economics is a body of doctrine relating to economic phenomena; and this chapter discusses the character and scope of this doctrine, and the logical method appropriate to its development. The main points involved in controversies about economic method may be indicated in outline by briefly contrasting two broadly distinguished schools, one of which describes political economy as theoretical, abstract, and deductive, while the other describes it as ethical, realistic, and inductive. The method of political economy cannot adequately be described by any single phrase; and accordingly no one method will be advocated to the entire exclusion of other methods. It will, on the contrary, be shewn that, according to the special department or aspect of the science under investigation, the appropriate method may be either abstract or realistic, deductive or inductive, mathematical or statistical, hypothetical or historical.
