The dismal science

Thomas Carlyle (1854)

"The dismal science" is a derogatory name for the science of economics, coined by Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle in 1849.<ref name=oed>Template:Cite OED</ref> It contrasts with "the gay science", a then-current name for poetry.

Origin

The phrase first appeared in "Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question" (1849), in which Carlyle claimed that emancipation had wrecked the economy of the West Indies by putting blacks in a position to demand unaffordable wages, thus depriving plantation owners of their labour supply. He argued for a return to some kind of forced labour system, albeit one more just than slavery. Economists of the time, following the principle of supply and demand, claimed that the labour problem could be resolved by opening the West Indies to African immigration, but Carlyle viewed this proposal with scorn, believing that it would lead to the development of "black Irelands" (i.e. impoverished, overpopulated islands liable to suffer terrible famines whenever crops failed). His contempt both for economists and the "Exeter Hall philanthropists" who had spearheaded emancipation moved him to write:

Carlyle had expressed similar sentiments regarding the theories of Malthus in Chartism (1840):

Amongst those who were influenced by Carlyle's assessment was John Ruskin, who wrote that Carlyle had "led the way" for his own critique of political economy in Unto This Last (1860).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Beyond Carlyle

Many at the time and afterward have understood the phrase in relation to the grim predictions drawn from the principles of 19th-century political economy.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> According to Humphry House:<ref>The Dickens World, Second Edition, Oxford Paperbacks, Oxford University Press, 1960 (1942), pp. 70-71, 75.</ref>

In modern discourse, the term can refer to the fact that economics invariably involves the study of scarcity, conflict, and trade-offs, leading to conclusions and policy recommendations that may highlight limitations and negative aspects of human behavior and societal organization.<ref>The Economist, Intelligent design, published 18 October 2007, accessed 15 July 2024: "... mechanism design is a hugely important area of economics, and underpins much of what dismal scientists do today. It goes to the heart of one of the biggest challenges in economics: how to arrange our economic interactions so that, when everyone behaves in a self-interested manner, the result is something we all like."</ref>

See also

• An Essay on the Principle of Population
• Critique of political economy
• Illth – a term of Ruskin's used to contrast the "wealth" that could be created by government with the "anarchy" created by laissez-faire<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
• Malthusian growth model
• Malthusianism

References

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External links

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