Abstract EN:

The analytical purpose of this phd. Dissertation is to determine the nature of Alfred Marshall's economics of welfare. It also intends to define precisely its links with utilitarianism. From an historical standpoint, this inquiry considers the Marshallian research program from its early works until its completion. This study is first of all based upon a comparative reading of the eight editions of Marshall's Principles of economics. But it also involves the rest of Marshall's edited work and some unpublished manuscripts. On the basis of an analysis of the logical consistency of Marshall's theories of utility, demand (individual and collective), and consumers' surplus, on the one hand, and by studying how this theoretical sections are connected, on the other hand, the argument concludes that Marshall's measure of social welfare is satisfactory from a logical point of view. This work, more particularly, shows that the strict constancy of the marginal utility of income (which is the main assumption required for the relevance of Marshall's monetary measure of utility), is an assumption that can be sustained without any inconsistency with the all body of assumptions adopted by marshall in other respects (the ceteris paribus clause). From this point of view, this work breaks with the traditional conclusions and interpretations of the economic literature. This original reading rests on the purpose of restoring the intellectual context of Marshall's theory. This work also studies the utilitarian moral philosophy of Henry Sidgwick (Marshall's elder at Cambridge) and compares it with Bentham's thought. After an examination of the nature of the inheritance which marshall retains from Sidgwick, this work finally concludes that marshall's economic and social thought cannot be linked with the utilitarian doctrine, whatever may be the part played by the utilitarian problems set in the constitution of the Marshallian economic research program.