Unidad documental simple 1 - Letter from John Elliot Cairnes

4 pp

Trin. Coll., Dublin - Thanks WW for his favourable letter concerning his Lectures on the Logical Method of Political Economy. The method of political economy is both inductive and deductive. The basis of deduction is both knowledge of principal motives actuating mankind in pursuit of wealth, and the principal conditions on which the results of industry depend. These represent general tendencies which indicate the direction inductive investigations should take: begin with a collection of actual cases and compare generalised results with a priori deductions. This way - as in the physical sciences - one should arrive at residual phenomena and be led to new principles. Hopes WW approves. He has not seen the work by Richard Jones which he refers to.