6 - Cambridge Economist

Summary

On 14 and 15 July 1949 at 6 p.m. Harry gave two lectures on “The Significance of Lord Keynes” to members of a Ministry of Education course in commerce and related subjects meeting in Sidney Sussex College. Thus began a long series of talks on Keynes and Keynesian economics to various audiences over the next 17 years, the last being “The Shadow of Keynes,” which appeared after his death in 1977. In his first lecture, Harry dealt with “The Keynesian Theory”; in the second, “An Evaluation of the Keynesian Approach.” At the start of the first lecture, he remarked:

I might describe myself as a third-generation Keynesian – Keynesian, in that I am convinced, as many economists are not, of the usefulness of the approach originated by Lord Keynes, and the importance of the problems with which his analysis deals; third-generation, in both the time at which I came to the study of the theory and my attitude towards it. I have neither the passionate conviction of revealed truth of the first generation, with its tendency towards bibliolatry, hero-worship, and intolerance towards critical points of view; nor the pioneering enthusiasm of the second generation, acknowledging the limitations of Keynes' book but not of his analysis, and assuming that the “General Theory” is the starting point of economic wisdom. I regard Keynes' “General Theory” as an extension rather than a replacement of previously existing knowledge, a book which omits not only some of the answers but also some of the questions; and I believe that further progress requires a synthesis of the Keynesian analysis with the general corpus of economic theory.

(Box 32, Writing 1949, 3)