================= HES POSTING ================= Roy Weintraub writes: >Gunning asks us to restrict our attention to those matters which he >considers important. Henderson is inclusive, Gunning is exclusive, >drawing a fence around a small set of questions in intellectual >history, and telling us to garden only within the fenced area. I >would suggest that there is much fertile land beyond his quite >mineral-depleted soil, and many flowers are a-blooming there. As a gardener, to use Professor Weintraub's metaphor, I seek fertile soil anywhere. However, when I set out, I have a clear idea of the crops I want to harvest. We should be careful with this metaphor. Weintraub's gardener aims to plant flowers that he/she likes. Like all wise consumers, he/she recognizes that he/she does not fully know his/her preferences. So he/she happily experiments, his/her only goal being to expand his/her consumption benefits or range of experiences. The historian of economics does not aim to plant a consumption good. His/Her business is the discovery and elucidation of cases in which knowledge has been produced -- cases in which less adequate ideas have been replaced by more adequate ideas. To him/her a "soil is fertile" only if it promises help in this goal. Of course, the historian of economics must select the class of knowledge that he/she aims to study. My posting sought to enclose that class. -- Pat Gunning http://stsvr.showtower.com.tw/~gunning/welcome ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]