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The purpose of this paper is to show how T.M. Knox sought to conceptualise economic activity in the context of his philosophical background and in relation to the analysis of the nature of economics offered by Lionel Robbins.

The paper presents an historical account of the development of Knox's thought, an exposition of his position in relation to that of Robbins and an analysis of the concept of economic activity.

The paper demonstrates the profound differences between an idealist conception of economics and a scientific conception of economics. It also shows the extent to which scientific conceptions are only one among a number of possible conceptions, and that they suffer from deep and perhaps unresolvable ambiguities.

Lionel Robbins' work receives a certain amount of attention in the literature on the history of economic thought, whereas contemporary commentary by philosophers such as T.M. Knox is ignored by the histories of economic thought. This paper is unique in bringing the two together and in showing that the debate in the 1930s about the foundations of economics goes beyond the discussions and advocates typically associated with it.

Narrative inquiry and life history are privileged methods for studying people's lives, experiences, and identity construction. In this article, I argue that critical life history inquiry is especially suitable for studies of those, who have actively involved in progressive social and cultural movements and have developed an identity as activist educators.

To examine the general political structure and background to decision making in aviation policy.

Largely conceptual and theoretical, applied to political and historical examples.

That ‘politics as usual’ signifies a structure characterised by adherence to underlying presuppositions which guide political and economic action and that moves towards different ways of thinking and acting and that environmental policy faces an uphill battle in the light of these often unacknowledged and typically unquestioned presuppositions.

Political action requires an accurate understanding of the circumstances in which it is to be undertaken. This chapter provides a clue to that proper understanding and hence is valuable for the appropriate orientation of political action.

The chapter employs an everyday term, ‘politics as usual’, and analyses its structure, claiming that it identifies a real underlying set of default positions in politics.

The paper establishes that Edward Caird developed a distinctive form of liberal Hegelianism out of his critical responses to Kant, the romantic tradition of Rousseau, Goethe and Wordsworth and indeed Hegel himself.

The paper presents a philosophical reconstruction of Caird's social economics that is based on a close reading of a very wide range of Caird's writings including his recently published lectures on social ethics and political economy.

Caird's theory of historical development underpinned his writings on social economics. One of his greatest debts in this regard was to his interpretation of the romantics, which introduced a rich conception of higher human capacities into his critical analysis of capitalism. When combined with his critique of Kantian formalism, this led Caird towards Hegel. Yet, Caird's concerns regarding corporatism's stultifying tendencies led him to develop a dynamic form of liberal Hegelianism, which placed far greater trust than had Hegel in the ability of free conscientious citizens to restructure and enrich established social categories (classes, professions, gender roles and so on) and the system of nations which those categories helped to constitute.

If Caird's liberal Hegelianism were to be adopted today, we could live in much freer, fairer and enriching communities than we do at present.

Edward Caird has been wrongly neglected in intellectual histories of Anglo‐American political theory, and while his writings on Kant's critical philosophy have received some scholarly attention, his critique of romanticism has never received the attention it deserves. This also draws on manuscripts that have been published only within the past five years, having been edited for the first time by the author of this paper.

This paper addresses doubts concerning the reliability of knowledge being created by double loop learning processes. Popper's ontological worlds are used to explore the philosophical basis of the way that individual experiences are turned into organisational knowledge, and such knowledge is used to generate organisational learning. The paper suggests that double loop learning may frequently create mistakes and fail to detect possible interesting lines of thought. Popper's work is used to suggest some solutions and an elaboration of the double loop learning process, but ultimately effective organisational learning is shown to depend on the undertaking of an epistemological burden by individuals above and beyond what is usually explicated in prescriptions for learning organisation and knowledge management.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that the school of thought known as Critical Realism and the thinkers involved in the current revival of interest in British Idealism would benefit from interacting with each other.

The paper proceeds by critically examining central tenets in the thought of each school, and exhibit their affinities and differences.

It is found that there are central themes and concerns shared by each school of thought, and that the recognition of such commonalities might prove mutually beneficial to the relevant parties in their goal of positively transforming social reality. Furthermore, the Critical Realist worry about Idealisms “irreality” is shown to be unfounded.

The close relationship of the ideas of these two “lines of thought” has not, to our knowledge, previously been highlighted. Having done so in the paper, a useful dialogue may ensue.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Amartya Sen’s notion of adaptation and his views on identity politics by focussing on the issue of slavery and, more specifically, on the example of the happy or contented slave.

The paper is text based. The methodological approach adopted is that of conceptual analysis, as is typical for work of this kind.

The paper concludes that the example of the happy or contented slave is indeed a fruitful one for those interested in exploring the relationship between Sen’s views on “the adaptation problem” and his views on identity politics, especially in relation to the subjection of women. Here Sen’s debt to the ideas of Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill is particularly important.

One implication of the argument of the paper is that there is a need to consider more carefully the differences that exist between the views of Wollstonecraft and Mill, so far as the example of the happy or contented slave is concerned.

One practical implication of the paper is that, hopefully, it establishes the continued relevance of the ideas of thinkers such as Wollstonecraft and Mill today, not least because of the influence that they have had on theoreticians such as Amartya Sen.

The paper addresses issues which are of considerable social and political significance, especially for women in underdeveloped societies today.

The example of the happy or contented slave has not received much discussion in the literature on Sen, although Sen himself has suggested that the distinction between happiness and contentment is an important one, which does merit further discussion.

Working on the assumption that civility is the core value of R.G. Collingwood's political philosophy, the paper aims to examine the capacity of civility to curb economic excess in the absence of distributive justice.

The paper investigates the economic and political writings of Collingwood to see if they can be made to yield restraints on economic excess when based on civility alone. Comparisons are drawn between Collingwood and modern liberal philosophers such as John Rawls in order to identify where Collingwood stands on key concepts in the argument. Contrasts are established with Hobbes and Ruskin on the issues at stake, so clarifying what can be drawn from Collingwood on the specific topic under discussion.

The paper concludes that there is theoretical scope within Collingwood's political writings for a curb on economic excess in the absence of a concept of distributive justice, even though this takes a different form from the approach of modern liberals such as John Rawls.

It is shown that Collingwood's economic writings are relevant to modern discussions of social justice even when it is civility and not justice that is Collingwood's main focus.