The use of the marginal concept in academic economic theory is found to underlie a good deal of current orthodox economic analysis. The marginal concept is used by thinkers with a collectivist bent as well as thinkers of an orthodox stamp. Marginal analysis is reasonably serviceable on some occasions but fraught with difficulties on others. When the marginal concept refers to a measurable factor, such as the marginal product of an additional unit of capital, it is unquestionably useful for analysis. (...) When it refers to a subjective situation, such as a marginal increase or decrease in satisfaction or demand, the analysis which rests upon it is often somewhat shaky. This paper is an attempt to point out some difficulties in the use of marginal analysis when such analysis refers to internal psychological states of economic men. The points made here will center about the concept of marginal satisfaction in income, that is to say, the assumption that the increment of satisfaction resulting from an additional unit of income, diminishes with size of income. (shrink)

Constitutional schemata have been of continuing interest in medicine and psychology ever since the time of Hippocrates. With the work of Sheldon, Stevens and Tucker, biotypology has been placed on a new basis. The reader who wishes to orient himself quickly and without too much detail, to the subject matter of typology, will find an interesting and substantial review by Anastasi. Wertheimer and Hesketh have produced a comprehensive, but brief, historical and analytic treatment of the constitutional approach in their rather (...) short monograph on the subject. Hempel and Oppenehim have examined the concept of psychological type in a novel fashion from the standpoint of modern logic and positivist philosophy. Typology has been of more interest to continental writers than to American writers. Numerous medical school dissertations at European universities attest to this fact. Medical and psychological literature on the subject is also more frequently of European or Latin American origin, than of United States origin, as a cursory glance at the Index Medicus or the Surgeon General's Catalogue will quickly reveal. The work of Sheldon has raised fresh theoretical considerations which we propose to outline to some extent in this paper and the above sources, we feel certain, will furnish sufficient orientation to those readers who come to this subject with little or no previous acquaintance with it. Before going any further the reader is urged to read Chapter V of the “Varieties of Human Physique”. (shrink)