GIOJA, Melchior (1767-1828), a distinguished Italian writer on philosophy and political economy, was born at Piacenza in 1767. He was educated at the celebrated college of St Lazare in his native town, and showed special fondness for the philosophical sciences. Apparently he had been destined for the church, but he seems to have given up at an early period the study of theology, and after completing his course at the college spent some years in retirement. His first work was the philosophical treatise ll nuovo Galateo (1802), which was followed by the Logica Statistica. The arrival of Napoleon in Italy drew Gioja into public life. He advocated warmly the establishment of a republican government, and under the Cisalpine Republic he was named historiographer and director of statistics. After the fall of Napoleon he retired into private life, and does not appear again to have held office. He died in 1828. Gioja’s fundamental idea is the value of statistics or the collection of facts. Philosophy itself is with him classification and consideration of ideas. Logic he regarded as a practical art, and his Hsercizioni Logici has the further title, Art of deriving benefit from ill-constructed boohs. In ethics Gioja follows Bentham, and his large treatise Del Merùo e delle Recompense, 1818, is a clear and systematic view of social ethics from the utilitarian principle. In political economy this avidity for facts produced better fruits. The Nuovo Prospetto delle Scienze Economiche, 6 vols., 1815-17, although long to excess, and overburdened with classifications and tables, contains much valuable material· In particular, Gioja must be credited with the finest and most original treatment of division of labour since the Wealth of Nations. Much of what Babbage taught later on the ...