Excerpt from Philosophy and Political Economy in Some of Their Historical Relations Political economy, or the study Of the relation Of human society to its material wealth, and philosophy, or the study Of first principles and ultimate issues, have at various times exerted an influence on one another which the history Of economics and philosophy makes very evident. Economical facts and practice, the actual condition Of national industries, wealth, and trade, as distinguished from theories about them, have, no doubt, had a Still greater influence, both on economists and philosophers and to estimate this effect of practice on theory would be a larger and perhaps a more important inquiry. Some writers have regarded this second inquiry as almost superseding the other, on the ground that the supreme force in human history IS economical.l It is clear that we may at least go as far as Erdmann, who begins his chapters on Greek Philosophy with the remark that philosophy arises when the struggle for existence has given place to a life Of leisure. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.