Jevons

William Stanley Jevons

Born: 1 Sept 1835 in Liverpool, England
Died: 13 Aug 1882 in Hastings, England

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Jevons studied natural sciences at University College London but broke off his studies in 1854 to take a job in Sydney. Jevons returned in 1859 and he outlined the marginal utility theory of value General Mathematical Theory of Political Economy (1862). In 1866 he was appointed to a chair of political economy at Manchester where he remained until he moved to University College, London in 1876.

Jevons's main contributions outside economics are in mathematical logic where he developed the 'logical piano', a machine with 21 keys for operations in equational logic. It has many features which were later incorporated into computer design.

His most important paper in logic was Principles of science (1874). As well as logic and economics he also made important contributions to probability.

References:

  1. Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  2. Biography in Encyclopaedia Britannica
  3. R Harley, Obituary of William Stanley Jevons, Proc. Roy. Soc. London 35 (1883), 1-12.
  4. E W Eckard, Economics of W S Jevons (Washington D.C., 1940).
  5. M Schabas, A world ruled by numbers : William Stanley Jevons and the rise of mathematical economics (Princeton, 1990). 
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JOC/EFR February 1996