读张五常的《经济解释》到了需求定律这一章，他专门列出一节，介绍了弗里德曼的分析，就是The Marshallian Demand Curve这篇文章。
这两天读了一下，确实佩服：一个是马歇尔，一个是弗里德曼，大师就是大师 —— 时间生命有限，还是要读经典！有了下单购买他们更多书籍的冲动，但还是先忍住吧。
文章很长，30多页；张五常都说：
做学生时我读之再三，改变了我对经济学的看法。
现在只读了一遍，肯定是不够的啦。先记下我认为，改变张五常对于经济学看法的一段：
To Marshall - to repeat an ex�pression quoted earlier - economic theory is "an engine for the discovery of concrete truth." The "economic organon" introduces "systematic and organized methods of reasoning." Marshall wrote:
Facts by themselves are silent.... The most reckless and treacherous of all theorists is he who professes to let facts and figures speak for themselves, who keeps in the background the part he has played, perhaps unconsciously, in selecting and grouping them, and in suggesting the argument post hoc ergo propter hoc.... The economist . .. must be suspicious of any direct light that the past is said to throw on problems of the present. He must stand fast by the more laborious plan of interrogating facts in order to learn the manner of action of causes singly and in combination, applying this knowledge to build up the organon of economic theory, and then making use of the aid of the organon in dealing with the economic side of social problems.
Economic theory, in this view, has two intermingled roles: to provide "system�tic and organized methods of reasoning" about economic problems; to provide a body of substantive hypotheses, based on factual evidence, about the "manner of action of causes." In both roles the test of the theory is its value in explaining facts, in predicting the consequences of changes in the economic environment. Abstractness, generality, mathematical elegance - these are all secondary, them� selves to be judged by the test of application. The counting of equations and unknowns is a check on the completeness of reasoning, the beginning of analysis, not an end in itself.
这里的organon指的是：
- 经济推理法，工具论，system of logical or scientific rules, esp that of Aristotle
试着翻译如下：
对于马歇尔 —— 重复前面引用的一种表达 —— 经济理论是“发现具体真理的引擎”。 “经济推理法/工具论”引入了“系统的和有组织的推理方法”。 马歇尔写道：
事实本身是沉默的.....在所有理论家中，最鲁莽的和最危险的人是自称让事实和人物说话的人，他将自己扮演的角色（也许是在不知不觉中，在选择和分组时）发挥了作用， 并提出 在它之后，也正是由于它......经济学家......必须怀疑据说过去引发了当前问题的任何直接光亮（我理解是线索，或者是解释吧）。 他必须坚决地接受更为艰辛的质问事实的计划，以便单独和组合地习得原因行为的方式，运用这些知识来建立经济理论的推理法/工具论，然后在此过程中利用该体系的帮助，来处理社会问题的经济方面。
在这种观点下，经济理论具有两个相互交织的作用：为经济问题提供“系统的，有组织的推理方法”； 提供基于事实证据的大量关于“原因行为方式”的实质性假设。 在这两种角色中，对理论的检验都是其在解释事实，预测经济环境变化的后果方面的价值。 抽象性，通用性，数学上的优雅 —— 这些都是次要的，它们自己需要通过实际应用的测试来判断。 方程和未知数的计数是对推理完整性的检验，是分析的起点，而不是分析的本身。
佩服佩服；先写这么多，随后再读，再写。
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