Introduction

How many Hickses do we know? Looking at the signatures of his papers, and hence at his bibliography, one suspects that there have been at least two: J. R. Hicks, from the beginning of his career in the 1930s to the end of the 1960s, and John Hicks, from the 1970s onwards. Was this change of name a whimsical caprice of a successful economist, or was it a meditated choice? An answer comes from Hicks himself. In 1975 (Hicks, 1975b: 365) he emphatically writes: ‘J. R. Hicks…[is] a “neoclassical” economist now deceased … John Hicks [is] a non-neo-classic who is quite disrespectful towards his “uncle.”’

Hence, Hicks changed his name because he changed his mind. John, the ‘nephew,’ came to develop different ideas about economic theory from J. R., the ‘uncle.’ This is a startling and intriguing occurrence; to be fair, though quite unique in the form, it is not entirely in the substance.

In the natural sciences in particular, where eager attention to new evidence is most keenly paid, changes of mind are not exceptionally rare events. Even in economics, one can cite several cases of a sharp change of mind.