Walras avait-il raison de critiquer Dupuit ?

Abstract

We are well aware of Walras’ hostility against Dupuit’s concept of surplus. The reasons for this hostility may be primarily psychological or ideological, not to mention Walras’ difficulty to understand the ideas of others. Nevertheless, in the present study, we would ground his hostility on more rational and more scientific reasons. The opposition between Dupuit, a utilitarian liberal, and Walras, an anti-utilitarian socialist, may justify—or at least throw some light on—the rejection of the surplus by the latter. Two debates in particular can support this impression, the one on the railways, of course, but also the one on transfer duties.

Keywords

• Dupuit (Jules)
• Walras (Léon)
• utilitarianism
• surplus