Introduction

Ken Dennis

pp. 1-4

in: Ken Dennis (ed), Rationality in economics, Berlin, Springer, 1998

Abstract

In the final printing of Sir R. H. Inglis Palgrave's monumental Dictionary of Political Economy (1918 [1899]), the word "rationality" and its cognates were neither itemized nor indexed, and one will search in vain for them in such key articles as "Utility" and "Mathematical Method in Political Economy" by F. Y. Edgeworth, "Abstract Political Economy" by J. N. Keynes, "Economic Man" by W. E. Johnson, or "Self-Interest" by J. M"Killop. A single occurrence of "rational" can be spotted in the three and a half columns of text accorded to "Egoism" by F. C. Montague (Palgrave 1918, I: 686). Evidently, the "rationality" family of words was not very actively used in the professional discourse of economists during the period under survey in the first Palgrave.