This volume offers an exciting new reading of John Ruskin’s economic and social criticism, based on recent research into rhetoric in economics. Willie Henderson uses notions derived from literary criticism, the ‘rhetorical turn in economics’ and more conventional approaches to historical economic texts to re-evaluate Ruskin’s economic and social criticism. By identifying Ruskin’s rhetoric, and by reading his work through that of Plato, Xenophon and John Stuart Mill, Willie Henderson reveals how Ruskin manipulated a knowledge-base. Moreoever, in his analysis of the writings of William Stuart, John Bates Clark and Alfred Marshall, the author shows that John Ruskin’s influence on the cultural significance of economics and on notions of economic well-being has been considerable.
Far from being mad, Ruskin attempted a methodological/scientific critique of political economy. He fixed on ideas of ‘natural laws’, ‘economic man’ and the prevailing notion of ‘value’ to point out gaps and inconsistencies in the system of classical economics. Though he wrote vigorously against the idea of formal systems of thought, some of his work has implications for the future development of economic analysis. By linking the consumer directly with the product being valued, he hit upon ideas of value which have elements in common with Jevon’s notion of marginal utility. He also took values into the heart of John Stuart Mill’s scientific domain of ‘production’. Harmony, for Ruskin, can only be achieved through the use of human reason guided by a sense of justice. Whilst he left no formal system of economic analysis, he had a huge impact on the ways in which economists, and wider society, began to move towards alternative policy and welfare contexts. Some of his ideas on individual economic responsibility, this book shows, speak to us directly today.
