John Neville Keynes ( ; 31 August 1852 – 15 November 1949) was a British
economist
An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics.
The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...
and father of
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
.
Biography
Born in
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...
,
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
, Keynes was the child of John Keynes (1805–1878) and his wife Anna Maynard Neville (1821–1907). He was educated at
Amersham Hall School,
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
and
Pembroke College,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, where he became a fellow in 1876. He held a lectureship in
Moral Sciences
Human science (or human sciences in the plural), also known as humanistic social science and moral science (or moral sciences), studies the philosophical, biological, social, and cultural aspects of human life. Human science aims to expand our ...
from 1883 to 1911. He was elected as
Registrary The Registrary is the senior administrative officer of the University of Cambridge. The term is unique to Cambridge, and uses an archaic spelling. Most universities in the United Kingdom and in North America have administrative offices entitled "reg ...
in 1910, and held that office until 1925.
He divided
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
into "positive economy" (the study of what is, and the way the economy works), "normative economy" (the study of what should be), and the "art of economics" (
applied economics
Applied economics is the study as regards the application of economic theory and econometrics in specific settings. As one of the two sets of fields of economics (the other set being the ''core''), it is typically characterized by the application ...
). The art of economics relates the lessons learned in positive economics to the normative goals determined in normative economics. He tried to synthesise
deductive
Deductive reasoning is the mental process of drawing deductive inferences. An inference is deductively valid if its conclusion follows logically from its premises, i.e. if it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be false ...
and
inductive reasoning
Inductive reasoning is a method of reasoning in which a general principle is derived from a body of observations. It consists of making broad generalizations based on specific observations. Inductive reasoning is distinct from ''deductive'' re ...
as a solution to the "
Methodenstreit
''Methodenstreit'' (German for "method dispute"), in intellectual history beyond German-language discourse, was an economics controversy commenced in the 1880s and persisting for more than a decade, between that field's Austrian School and the (Ge ...
". His main works were:
''Studies and Exercises in Formal Logic''(1884)
*
The Scope and Method of Political Economy' (1891)
In 1882 he married
Florence Ada Brown
Florence Ada Keynes (née Brown; 10 March 1861 – 13 February 1958) was an English author, historian and politician.
Career
Keynes was an early graduate of Newnham College, Cambridge where her contemporaries included the economist Mary Marsha ...
, who was later a Mayor of Cambridge. They had two sons and a daughter:
*
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
(1883–1946), the economist
*
Margaret Neville Keynes (1885–1970), who married
Archibald Hill
Archibald Vivian Hill (26 September 1886 – 3 June 1977), known as A. V. Hill, was a British physiologist, one of the founders of the diverse disciplines of biophysics and operations research. He shared the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or M ...
(winner of the 1922 Nobel Prize for Physiology) in 1913
*
Geoffrey Langdon Keynes (1887–1982), a surgeon
He represented Cambridge University six times in the annual chess match against Oxford University and is the joint holder of the record for most appearances on either side.
He outlived his elder son by three years; he died in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, aged 97.
See also
*
Keynes family
The Keynes family ( ) is an English family that has included several notable economists, writers, and actors, including the economist John Maynard Keynes.
Family tree of modern Keynes family
History
The English surname Keynes is d ...
References
Sources
*
Phyllis Deane
Phyllis Mary Deane FBA (13 October 1918 – 28 July 2012) was a British economic historian and a historian of economic thought. She served as Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge from 1981 to 1983.
Life and career
Deane ...
(1987). "Keynes, John Neville," ''
The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 3, p. 92.
External links
*
1852 births
1949 deaths
English logicians
Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Fellows of Pembroke College, Cambridge
John Neville
People from Salisbury
English economists
English philosophers
19th-century British economists
20th-century British economists
Registraries of the University of Cambridge
People educated at Amersham Hall
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