Mill first reframed political economy as science rather than household art

Evidence

Hayek’s critique of the household model of the economy was not original. The nineteenth-century political philosopher John Stuart Mill was the first to criticise the belief that political economy ‘is to the state, what domestic economy is to the family.’ The management of a household is not a science but an art, Mill contended in 1844; it is, in Aristotle’s terms, a form of phronesis or practical wisdom, governed by maxims of prudence, and aimed at securing the greatest physical comfort or enjoyment with a given means. Political economy, in contrast, was not a governmental paradigm, but a scientific one; not the art of household management writ large, but a science with its own laws and truths. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 157

Categorization

• DEFINE: Mill’s distinction between oikonomia as phronesis/practical art and political economy as science with its own laws is a precise conceptual frame.
• XREF: connects to: Modern economics replaced the class-conflict lens of classical political economy with individualist harmony — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 30

Broader Connections

• Modern economics replaced the class-conflict lens of classical political economy with individualist harmony #complicates (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 30