Terence Wilmot Hutchison FBA (13 August 1912 – 6 October 2007) was an

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the 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 field there are ...

and

economic historian Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and ins ...

Early years

The son of

Robert Langton Douglas Robert Langton Douglas (1864–1951) was a British art critic, lecturer, and author, and director of the National Gallery of Ireland. Biography Douglas was born in Davenham, Cheshire, and educated at New College, Oxford, New College, University o ...

, Hutchison was born in Bournemouth and was educated at

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

. Backhouse, Roger E.
"Hutchison, Terence Wilmot (1912–2007)"
''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', Oxford University Press, 2013; online edition, January 2011. Retrieved 2 February 2022 Remaining unaware of his father's identity until his teens, he was a half-brother to

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Marshal of the Royal Air Force (MRAF) is the highest rank in the Royal Air Force (RAF). In peacetime it was granted to RAF officers in the appointment of Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), and to retired Chiefs of the Air Staff (CAS), who were ...

William Sholto Douglas, 1st Baron Douglas of Kirtleside. His Australian mother, Grace Hutchison (1870–1935), brought him up in the Christian Scientist faith. Hutchison attended Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1931 to study the classics but switched to economics, taking his bachelor of arts degree, with first class honours, in 1934. Subsequently, he spent a year at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

(LSE), then became a lecturer in economics in

Bonn, Germany The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr ...

in 1935, due to an interest in

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

. He spent approximately three years in Bonn, learning the German language while researching German studies in economics. Following a brief period in Vienna, Hutchison moved to

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...

in 1938 to take up a position at a teacher training college. The installation of a pro-Nazi regime in Iraq in 1941 prompted him to move to

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

, where he joined the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

as an intelligence officer, serving initially on the Northwest Frontier, then in Egypt and finally in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

University career

In 1946, he began his British university career with a position at the

University of Hull , mottoeng = Bearing the Torch f learning, established = 1927 – University College Hull1954 – university status , type = Public , endowment = £18.8 million (2016) , budget = £190 million ...

. After a year at Hull, he moved to the LSE, where he became interested in the history of economics. The

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...

named him Mitsui Professor of Economics in 1956, holding that position he held until he retired in 1978. He continued to teach the history of economics for another two years. After retiring, Hutchison published the book ''Before Adam Smith'' in 1988, the first book in English to systematically analyze 18th Century economic writing before the publication of Adam Smith's seminal work ''

The Wealth of Nations ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'', generally referred to by its shortened title ''The Wealth of Nations'', is the '' magnum opus'' of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in ...

'' (1776).

Personal life

Hutchison married the German national Loretta Hack, a student in Bonn, in 1935. She died in 1981. In 1983, he married the American academic Christine Donaldson, who died in 2003. He had three children.

Selected publications

* Terence W. Hutchison, 1938. ''The Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory'', Macmillan. This work established his credentials as an economic methodologist. * _____, 1941. "The Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory: A Reply to Professor Knight," ''Journal of Political Economy'', 49(5), pp
732
750. * _____, 1953. ''A Review of Economic Doctrines 1870-1929'', Oxford), * _____, 2000. ''On the Methodology of Economics and the Formalist Revolution'', Edward Elgar.
Description
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* Frank H. Knight, 1940. "'What is Truth' in Economics," rticle review of Hutchison, 1938''Journal of Political Economy'', 48(1), pp. 1–32. Reprinted in ''Selected Essays by Frank H. Knight: "What is Truth" in Economics?'', University of Chicago Press, pp
372-399

References

External links

biopic and major published works from the

New School The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...