GOSSEN, gos'sen, Herman Heinrich, Ger man economist: b. Diiren, 1810; d. 1858. His father and grandfather were government offi cials, and he followed the same career, with a want of success which is attributed to his predilection for abstract studies. He is de scribed as amiable and unpractical. He re tired into private life in 1847, occupying him self first with a project of universal insurance, afterward with his book entitled 'Entwick clung der Gesetze des menschlichen Verkehrs and der darausfliessenden Regeln fiir mensch liches Handein' (Brunswick 1854). This work which had been generally overlooked even in Germany, and is not mentioned in Roscher's 'History,) was brought to light by Professor Adamson, and an account of it was given by Jevons in the preface to the second edition of his 'Theory of Political Economy.) It was extremely rare and was reprinted at Berlin in 1889. The work is an attempt to found economics on a mathematical basis, and the author regarded his services in the reform of the method of the science as similar to those of Copernicus in astronomy. Gossen's book
contains two elements of unequal value; a somewhat narrow and pedantic application of utilitarian philosophy to politics and ethics, and a very original formulation of the principle of final utility in economics. In general it may be said that Gossen is guilty of a fallacy to which mathematical economists are peculiarly liable; what may be called the "illicit process" from the principle of utility in economics to utilitarianism in the philosophy of conduct. Gossen's strength lay only in the more mechan ical portions of the mathematical theory. He was a man of one idea; but that was an im mortal one. Consult Journal des Economistes (4th ser., Vol. XXX„ 1885, p. 68); Walras, Leon, Economiste Inconnu.'