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William Stanley Jevons, LL.D., MA, FRS (;〔Daniel Jones, ''Everyman's English Pronouncing Dictionary'' (Dent, Dutton: 13th ed., 1967), p. 266.〕 1 September 1835 – 13 August 1882) was an English economist and logician. Irving Fisher described Jevons' book ''A General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy'' (1862) as the start of the mathematical method in economics.〔Irving Fisher, 1892. ''Mathematical Investigations in the Theory of Value and Prices'', Appendix III, "The Utility and History of Mathematical Method in Economics", p. (109. )〕 It made the case that economics as a science concerned with quantities is necessarily mathematical.〔W. Stanley Jevons, 1871.''The Principles of Political Economy'', p. 4.〕 In so doing, it expounded upon the "final" (marginal) utility theory of value. Jevons' work, along with similar discoveries made by Carl Menger in Vienna (1871) and by Léon Walras in Switzerland (1874), marked the opening of a new period in the history of economic thought. Jevons' contribution to the marginal revolution in economics in the late 19th century established his reputation as a leading political economist and logician of the time. Jevons broke off his studies of the natural sciences in London in 1854 to work as an assayer in Sydney, where he acquired an interest in political economy. Returning to the UK in 1859, he published ''General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy'' in 1862, outlining the marginal utility theory of value, and ''A Serious Fall in the Value of Gold'' in 1863. For Jevons, the utility or value to a consumer of an additional unit of a product is inversely related to the number of units of that product he already owns, at least beyond some critical quantity. It was for ''The Coal Question'' (1865), in which he called attention to the gradual exhaustion of the UK's coal supplies, that he received public recognition, in which he put forth what is now known as the Jevons paradox, i.e. that increases in energy production efficiency leads to more not less consumption. The most important of his works on logic and scientific methods is his ''Principles of Science'' (1874),〔Jevons, William Stanley, ''The Principles of Science: A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method'', Macmillan & Co., London, 1874, 2nd ed. 1877, 3rd ed. 1879. Reprinted with a foreword by Ernst Nagel, Dover Publications, New York, 1958.〕 as well as ''The Theory of Political Economy'' (1871) and ''The State in Relation to Labour'' (1882). Among his inventions was the logic piano, a mechanical computer. ==Background== Jevons was born in Liverpool, Lancashire, England. His father, Thomas Jevons, a man of strong scientific tastes and a writer on legal and economic subjects, was an iron merchant. His mother Mary Anne Jevons was the daughter of William Roscoe. At the age of fifteen he was sent to London to attend the University College School. He appears at this time to have already formed the belief that important achievements as a thinker were possible to him, and at more than one critical period in his career this belief was the decisive factor in determining his conduct. Towards the end of 1853, after having spent two years at University College, where his favourite subjects were chemistry and botany, he unexpectedly received the offer of the assayership to the new mint in Australia. The idea of leaving the UK was distasteful, but pecuniary considerations had, in consequence of the failure of his father's firm in 1847, become of vital importance, and he accepted the post. He left the UK for Sydney in June 1854, and remained there for five years. At the end of that period he resigned his appointment, and in the autumn of 1859 entered again as a student at the University College London, proceeding in due course to the B.A. and M.A. degrees of the University of London. He now gave his principal attention to the moral sciences, but his interest in natural science was by no means exhausted: throughout his life he continued to write occasional papers on scientific subjects, and his intimate knowledge of the physical sciences greatly contributed to the success of his chief logical work, ''The Principles of Science''. Not long after taking his M.A. degree Jevons obtained a post as tutor at Owens College, Manchester. In 1866 he was elected professor of logic and mental and moral philosophy and Cobden professor of political economy in Owens College. Next year he married Harriet Ann Taylor, whose father, John Edward Taylor, had been the founder and proprietor of the Manchester Guardian. Jevons suffered a good deal from ill health and sleeplessness, and found the delivery of lectures covering so wide a range of subjects very burdensome. In 1876 he was glad to exchange the Owens professorship for the professorship of political economy in University College, London. Travelling and music were the principal recreations of his life; but his health continued to be bad, and he suffered from depression. He found his professorial duties increasingly irksome, and feeling that the pressure of literary work left him no spare energy, he decided in 1880 to resign the post. On 13 August 1882 he drowned whilst bathing near Hastings. Jevons was a prolific writer, and at the time of his death was a leader in the UK both as a logician and as an economist. Alfred Marshall said of his work in economics that it "will probably be found to have more constructive force than any, save that of Ricardo, that has been done during the last hundred years." Stanley Jevons was brought up a Christian Unitarian,〔Mosselmans, Bert, ("William Stanley Jevons" ), ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy''〕 and excerpts from his journals indicate he remained committed to his Christian beliefs until death. He is buried in the Hampstead Cemetery.〔(UVic.ca - University of Victoria )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William Stanley Jevons」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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