Bert Mosselmans. William Stanley Jevons and the Cutting Edge of Economics (Book Review‪)‬

Bert Mosselmans. William Stanley Jevons and the Cutting Edge of Economics. London and New York: Routledge. 2007. Pp. i+160. ISBN 978-0-415-28578-0. 65 [pounds sterling] (hb). This slim book is composed of seven short chapters (three of which are coauthored), an appendix, and a two-paragraph preface. As Mosselmans explains in his preface, each of the seven chapters had previously been published, albeit many 'in books or non-economic journals'. Such diversity of publishing venue accords with the wide range of themes explored in the book. Nevertheless, it is possible to group these themes into three general categories. In the first two chapters we are treated to, respectively, an overview of Jevons' life and economic thought, and a (very) brief account of Jevons' attempt to 'deconstruct' the traditional economic canon by weeding out all the 'evil' Ricardian elements. Then, in chapters three and four, we move on to Jevons' debt to Quetelet and the relationship between his statistical methodology and his studies in logic. The remaining three chapters explore various aspects of the non-economic commitments and values which structure and shape Jevons' economic theory and policy recommendations.