Is Utility Theory Tautological? An Old Argument

"What does [Jevon's theory] really amount to? In my apprehension to this, and no more - that value depends upon utility, and that utility is whatever effects value. In other words, the name 'utility' is given to the aggregate of unknown conditions which determine the phenomenon, and then the phenomenon is stated to depend upon what this name stands for." -- J. E. Cairnes, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy (1874) (quoted by G. Myrdal in The Politcal Element in the Development of Economic Theory)

"...that value was determined by the conditions which determine it - an announcement, the importance of which, even though presented under the form of abtruse mathematical symbols, I must own myself unable to discern." -- J. E. Cairnes, Some Leading Principles of Political Economy (1874) (quoted by G. Myrdal in The Politcal Element in the Development of Economic Theory)