Seminar: William Petty?s Science.
Dr. Ted McCormick, National University of Ireland.

Wednesday March 5 2008. 5.30 to 7.00 p.m. 

Ricardo Lecture Theatre, Department of Economics, University College London. 
Drayton House, 30 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AX.
Corner of Gordon Street and Euston Road.
Directly opposite Euston Station (same building as Friends? House). 

William Petty (1623-87) is best known for his anticipation of ?scientific 
economics?. But his interest in economic questions grew out of his 
other ?scientific? career, as a physician, experimental philosopher and 
projector in the midst of the Scientific Revolution. His medical training, his 
pursuit of experimental knowledge, economic improvement and educational reform 
with the Hartlib Circle, his work on the Down Survey of Ireland and his 
experience of Cromwellian and Restoration politics all shaped his understanding 
of how policy could transform a nation?s situation by improving both natural 
resources and human populations. The result, ?political arithmetic?, was less 
an anticipation of modern economic analysis than an application of seventeenth-
century science.

Students and staff of the University and others interested in the subject are 
all welcome. No ticket necessary and no charge for admission.

An Inter-Disciplinary Seminar on the History and Philosophy of Economic Thought.

For further details, contact:
Hugh Goodacre
020 7679 5889
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Hugh Stevens