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Another place to get a sense of the interactions between engineering and
political economy (economics) would be to see Theodore Porter's chapter
called "Rigor and Practicality: Rival Ideals of Quantification in
Nineteenth-Century Economics," in Philip Mirowski, ed., Natural Images in
Economic Thought: Markets Read in Tooth and Claw, (New York: Cambridge UP,
1994), 128-172.
Porter discusses the intense debate in nineteenth century economics on
‘rigor’ and ‘practicality’ as rival ideals of quantification.
In line with Humberto Barreto's post (and my interest in this for the way
in which it constructs the 'economy' as a 'machine' and a 'system', and
this itself is an important aspect of the work of the machine metaphor in
enlightenment epistemology) the following observations based on Porter may
be of interest:
1. The economics of engineers and physicists (first in France, and then
Britain) who were more interested in quantifying economic magnitudes in
practical terms, drawing upon scientific vocabularies of the effectiveness
of engines. Drawing upon Norton Wise, Porter writes (142-3),
"Here was a form of economic reasoning and, more crucially, a system of
economic practice that would permit scientists to judge the productivity of
machines and labour, as well as to improve them. In this economics,
statistics of factories, workers, and production meant something.
Quantification could aid administration, could guide the improving
activities of engineers and reformers.... this formulation permitted a
clear distinction between useful work and waste, and indeed give a
quantitative expression of efficiency".
2.
Typical examples of such practical calculation are provided by attempts to
determine the “optimal mix of machine labour with human labour”. Porter
(143) cites some examples of James Thomson (engineer and brother of
physicist William Thomson) -– one interesting instance is Thomson
calculating to decide whether it was energetically advantageous to boil
urine as fertiliser, thereby producing an increase in food for human
workers, or to employ the coal fire directly for productive work.
Nitasha Kaul
University of the West of EnglandUK
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