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The article attempts to measure, and indicate the trend of, contemporary expert opinion on the relationship of ethics to economics. It offers the results obtained from a questionnaire study conducted on the subject. Two groups were chosen as being most directly concerned: the economists themselves, and the philosophers, who have special interests in the field of ethics. All the answers from this group were from university teachers. Questionnaires were sent to seventy-five economists and to fifty philosophers. Of these, forty-nine economists responded, giving a 65-percent return, and twenty philosophers, giving a 40-percent return. One question asked whether or not the respondent thought that the subject was so well settled that it renders the making of normative statements an unprofessional act on the part of the economist. It is repetitive, to some extent, of questions already asked on the form, but this was done purposely to be certain that the checked answers would reliably measure the individual's belief. There were some interesting written comments.

The article reports that Bernard Shaw's role as an economic thinker can scarcely be isolated from his work in general. Some of his early novels, like "An Unsocial Socialist," exhibit traces of his economic thinking. In his criticisms of music and drama, his essays on art and imprisonment and vivisection, his biographic and autobiographic sketches, and in his personal letters, the economic point of view (especially as expressed in his socialism) is pervasive. In his essay "The Transition to Social Democracy," Shaw emphasizes that the Social Democratic program was already well under way at that time, and that the program (present and future) of Social Democracy grew out of things already accepted and established in Britain and out of typical British attitudes. He emphasizes the gradual, peaceful, orderly nature of the transition, though he confesses that he has no particular admiration for this process and says that the only alternative to it is violent insurrection.

The article focuses on social scientist Thorstein Veblen's views on population and resources. Of the considerable literature about Veblen's views, little pertains to those relating to population and resources. Veblen's views on population are scattered through his books and essays, often set in historical or contemporary American and international contexts. They changed little over time though they reflected the business and ideological or ideational background of Veblen's America as well as works of philosophical, anthropological, and evolutionary writers which Veblen studied. The period 1890-1927, in the course of which most of Veblen's work appeared, witnessed growing approval by American writers of Maithus's general approach to the population question, albeit not of his estimate of the elasticity of population or the corollary inference that "overpopulation" might be imminent in the United States. Running through some of what Veblen wrote is a contrasting of slow biological change with much more rapid cultural change, source of modification of man's habits, institutions, and economic life.

This article discusses the contributions of Thorstein Veblen to economics. The appearance of a doctorate thesis from the University of Paris in France by William Jaffé is a reminder that the work of Veblen may be regarded as practically complete and ready for criticism. In his first article on the Critique of Judgment by Immanuel Kant, he was willing to test the theory of evolution and to attempt to work out scientific laws for economics. It can not be argued that his philosophy is determined by Georg W. F. Hegel and Karl Marx. However, the roots of his philosophy are to be found in Kantianism and post-Darwinian philosophy. With this philosophical background, he approached the subject of economics. His approach was from the inductive side in keeping with his philosophy. He was interested in dynamics and his first important published works on economics in 1892 was entitled, The Price of Wheat Since 1867. In the same year he published the article, The Food Supply and the Price of Wheat. These articles were models of analysis of economic facts. They were models for the work of later economists in analyzing the relationship of complex factors. The close attention to dynamic factors in these articles warrants a further consideration of his environment.