Simon J. Cook. The Intellectual Foundations of Alfred Marshall's Economic Science: A Rounded Globe of Knowledge (Book Review‪)‬

Simon J. Cook. The Intellectual Foundations of Alfred Marshall's Economic Science: A Rounded Globe of Knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2009. Pp. xviii + 331. ISBN 13: 9780521760089. 30.00 [pounds sterling]. Simon Cook has written a worthwhile account of the intellectual foundations of Alfred Marshall's economic science which combines analytical rigour with the intellectual mood of the time. Already well known to Marshall scholars as the promising author of several articles in leading field journals on various facets of Marshall's philosophical studies as well as the contributor of a number of shrewd entries to the Elgar Companion to Alfred Marshall, Cook's latest endeavour surpasses the standards of intellectual rigour set in those earlier explorations. Starting with the apt framing reference from Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt, Cook proceeds to navigate his way through the dense philosophical thickets that eventually came to frame so much of Marshall's broader economic enterprise. At every stage in striving to unravel Marshall's circuitous pursuit of an economic science founded on philosophical principles and ideals, Cook displays considerable maturity in refraining from making blunt statements or rash conjectures about certain aspects of the relationship between Marshall's early historical studies, his earlier philosophical studies and his ongoing study of economics. Although keen to tackle obscurities in Marshall's arguments, Cook occasionally acknowledges that 'it is by no means a simple task to discern the precise shape of his thinking on this period' because the available information is far from good enough to solve the puzzle (p. 219).