A.C. Pigou and the 'Marshallian' Thought Style

This chapter is an introductory chapter. It broadly outlines this book’s central contention—that is, following Alfred Marshall’s retirement, the style of economic thought associated with Marshall evolved in an adaptive way through the work of his successor Arthur Cecil Pigou and, notwithstanding the many differences in Marshall’s and Pigou’s representations of economic theory, Pigou’s economics continued to fall within the broad category of a Marshallian ‘thought style’. The general historiographical approach taken is outlined and a brief review of each chapter is provided to orient the reader to the structure of the book.

This chapter provides context to Arthur Cecil Pigou’s life and times, intellectual development, and scholarly contributions. This biographical narrative draws on and complements previous studies that broadly address aspects of Pigou’s life and his early contributions to knowledge. Biographical studies of Pigou are constrained by the lack of surviving personal papers and correspondence. With available records on his life fragmented, a comprehensive account of his life is not attempted. Rather, a chronological sequence of Pigou’s professional life is presented, which is complemented by a thematically arranged presentation of aspects of his personal life. There is, in particular, a focus on his family and youth, scholarly activities and contributions, approach to work and leadership at Cambridge, contributions to public service, and aspects of his life that are relevant to the development of his ideas. The latter includes an account of his friendships and connections and the impact of his wartime activities.

This chapter reviews the changing perspectives that have developed in the history of economic thought (HET) literature over the course of the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century on Arthur Cecil Pigou as a ‘Marshallian’ scholar. The finding of this review is that the general understanding of what constitutes the term ‘Marshallian’ economics that has evolved over this time, and, as a result, two opposing perspectives of Pigou as a Marshallian economist have arisen in the literature. The first generally emphasises continuity between Pigouvian and Marshallian economic thought, while the second generally emphasises discontinuity between them. In contrast, the discontinuity thesis emphasises Pigou’s failure to develop Alfred Marshall’s evolutionary conceptions of industrial development and his increasing formalisation of economic theory. A pattern in the formation of historians’ perceptions (or interpretations) of Pigou is found to be related to the re-emergence and flourishing of Marshall Studies from the 1980s.

This chapter outlines Ludwik Fleck’s philosophy and sociology of scientific knowledge and employs that approach to provide a new perspective on Arthur Cecil Pigou’s economic thinking relative to Alfred Marshall. The various characteristics and attributes of Pigou’s life and contributions that are identified in Chaps. 2 and 3 are considered from the perspective of Fleck’s notion of ‘thought collective’ and the related, but different, notion of ‘thought style’. These distinctions are then employed to develop an alternative and largely consistent way of understanding the concept of ‘Marshallian’ economics and to identify mechanisms to account for the ‘Marshallian’ thought style that evolved under Pigou’s influence. In this way, the Fleckian framework provides a means to interpret adaptation and modification in the ‘Marshallian’ thought style as part of an evolutionary process.

This chapter presents a reconstruction of aspects of Arthur Cecil Pigou’s philosophical biography. Utilitarian traditions as they pertain to the study of political economy in Britain are noted and then placed in the context of changes that occurred in philosophy and science during the second half of the nineteenth century. It is argued that the philosophical influences dominant in Britain during the period of Alfred Marshall’s formative intellectual development, which broadly corresponds with the early period of British idealism, are distinct in many ways from the influences that had become prominent by Pigou’s undergraduate years at Cambridge (and in the period up to the First World War). It is argued that these divergent philosophical frameworks explain some of the differences in Marshall’s and Pigou’s respective philosophical visions of the representation of economic theory.

This chapter is the final chapter and conclusion. The general conclusion reached is that the economic thinking associated with the first and second generation of leaders of the Cambridge tradition, namely of Alfred Marshall and Arthur Cecil Pigou respectively, evolved in an adaptive way and that, notwithstanding differences that arose between Pigou’s and Marshall’s representations of economic theory, Pigou’s economics continued to fall within the broad category of a Marshallian ‘thought style’.