CHAPTER XIV. Economic Social Value (_continued_)

ECONOMIC SOCIAL VALUE (continued)

Abstract elements of the Austrian and English schools, individual "utilities" and "costs," have their place in the concrete whole of social intermental life--Social causes largely determine them--But this not enough for a theory of social value--Intensity of a man's feelings or desires has no relation whatever to value in market till we know social rankings of men--Conflicts of values concerned with these social rankings--Prices express results of court decisions as well as results of changing individual desires for economic goods--We break the circle by turning to the concrete whole of social-mental life--Economics has failed to profit by example of other social sciences here--No social science can explain its phenomena by reference to one or two abstract factors 148