W. C.ミッチェルとフランク・アルバート・フェッター(アメリカ制度学派の研究,共同研究)

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Frank Albert Fetter (1863-1949) played an active role in the economics of the United States in the early part of this century, as the leading economist of the American Psychological School. He published Principles of Economics in 1905, which was republished as Economic Principles in 1915. In this book, he attempted a thorough elimination of the old utilitarianism and hedonism, which continually tainted the terms and conceptions of value ever since the days of Jeremy Bentham. Fetter tried to revise economics based on the psychological trends of that era. He modified the theory of value and the theory of interest, and also proposed the conception of psychic income, which was accepted by Irving Fisher. Wesley Clair Mitchell, one of the founders of the Institutional School along with Thorstein B. Veblen and John R. Commons, examined Fetter's economics, attaching great importance to the relationship between economics and psychology. Mitchell accounted for the psychological foundations of Fetter's economics. I took up Mitchell's views as I became interested in how Fetter modified his economic theories in this way. First of all, Mitchell considered the gradual decline of so-called hedonistic economics, which, according to Fetter, was the same as the decline of the pleasure-pain psychology of Bentham. Mitchell thus tried to modify economics based on a new psychology. Mitchell then dealt with the theory of value of Fetter, who related value to choice, in contrast to William Stanley Jevons, who related value to utility. With this theoretical procedure, Fetter tried to eliminate hedonism from the theory of value. Yet, according to Mitchell, Fetter's theory of value was still hedonistic, because his modification was based on a hedonistic view of human nature. His statement of choice is considered to be based on instinct-impulse psychology, which play the same fundamental role as hedonistic psychology in framing his theory of value. Mitchell also examined Fetter's theory of interest, centering around "time preference," a fundamental element of the theory. Fetter proposed this "time preference," claiming that it was different from Fisher's "impatience," but Mitchell disagreed. He found fault with the hedonistic conception of human nature, which eliminated other human elements and was assumed in the foundation of the fundamental element. Eventually, Fetter modified his theory of interest hedonistically, based on the human sensations of consumption. In other words, his theory was not dealing with interest as pecuniary phenomena in the economic system of business enterprise. As stated above, Mitchell clarified the basic characteristics of Fetter's economics. However, he did not fully explain Fetter himself and the economic conditions of Fetter's time. Likewise, Mitchell did not sufficiently criticize the hedonistic conception of human nature. In these points, the limitations of Mitchell's studies are revealed. Be that as it may, Mitchell not only summarized Fetter's theories of value and interest but also accounted for their psychological elements. And this should be evaluated very highly.
日本大学の論文
1986-03-20

W. C.ミッチェルとフランク・アルバート・フェッター(アメリカ制度学派の研究,共同研究)

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