Richard Whately

Introductory Lectures on Political Economy (Dodo Press) Richard Whately

Richard Whately (1787-1863) was an English logician and theological writer. During his residence at Oxford he wrote his tract, Historic Doubts Relative to Napoleon Bonaparte, a clever jeu d'ésprit directed against excessive scepticism as applied to the Gospel history. His lectures, On the Use and Abuse of Party Spirit in Matters of Religion, were published in 1822. In 1825 he published a series of Essays on Some of the Peculiarities of the Christian Religion, followed in 1828 by a second series On some of the Difficulties in the Writings of St Paul, and in 1830 by a third On the Errors of Romanism Traced to Their Origin in Human Nature. In 1837 he wrote his well-known handbook of Christian Evidences, which was translated during his lifetime into more than a dozen languages. As an opponent of Ricardian theory, Whately set out the rudiments of a subjective theory of value in his Introductory Lectures on Political Economy (1831).