The Task and Prize of the Social Sciences

Abstract This chapter offers some concluding remarks while considering some of the main issues addressed throughout the book. I emphasise Jevons’s belief in the unity of knowledge—a concept that presents modern, specialised scholars with the challenge of looking beyond the limits of their own fields. I also highlight the importance of religion in Jevons’s thought. For Jevons, religion did not belong solely in the private sphere, but also informed his scientific thought. I then address the issue of Jevons’s ‘provincial’ position, which provided him with a different perspective compared to that of intellectuals residing in London. I also highlight that Jevons appealed to the specialisation of political economists as professional academics in order to establish a new basis for their authority in public life. I point out that specialisation and professionalisation did not undermine the unity of knowledge or the idea that social science was a form of public engagement.