Hardback
Rationality in Economic Thought
Methodological Ideas on the History of Political Economy
9781858989556 Edward Elgar Publishing
The main theme of this book is the methodological problem of rationality in economic thought. The author investigates the different interpretations of this problem advanced by major figures in the history of economic thought.
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Contents
More Information
The main theme of this book is the methodological problem of rationality in economic thought. The author investigates the different interpretations of this problem advanced by major figures in the history of economic thought.
The book examines the history and rationality of the ‘theory of value’ from Adam Smith to Alfred Marshall and attempts to understand these arguments and criticisms within a general methodological vein. It goes on to provide a complete historical account of the ideas and arguments on value propounded by Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Jevons, Walras and Marshall as well as by more recent scholars such as Sraffa and Debreu and interprets their methodological differences. The author proposes a novel ‘pragmatic-pluralist’ methodological interpretation which borrows and creatively synthesizes ideas from many sources, including Wittgenstein (language-games), Searle (performatives), Habermas (communicative reason), hermeneutics, Marx and the pragmatic tradition.
Rationality in Economic Thought will be of interest to students and scholars of the history of economic thought, economic methodology and the philosophy of the social sciences.
The book examines the history and rationality of the ‘theory of value’ from Adam Smith to Alfred Marshall and attempts to understand these arguments and criticisms within a general methodological vein. It goes on to provide a complete historical account of the ideas and arguments on value propounded by Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Jevons, Walras and Marshall as well as by more recent scholars such as Sraffa and Debreu and interprets their methodological differences. The author proposes a novel ‘pragmatic-pluralist’ methodological interpretation which borrows and creatively synthesizes ideas from many sources, including Wittgenstein (language-games), Searle (performatives), Habermas (communicative reason), hermeneutics, Marx and the pragmatic tradition.
Rationality in Economic Thought will be of interest to students and scholars of the history of economic thought, economic methodology and the philosophy of the social sciences.
Contents
Contents: Introduction Part I: Narration and Interpretation: Methods, Arguments, Disagreements 1. The Nature of Smith’s and Ricardo’s Inquiries, Their Ideas on Value, and Ricardo’s Criticisms of Smith 2. Marx’s Critical Theory: On Method, Value and Exploitation, Accumulation and the Contradictions of Capitalism 3. Marx’s Critique of Smith and Ricardo on Method and Value: Dialectical Appropriations and Transcendence 4. Jevons and Walras on the Nature of Economic Inquiry, Their Ideas on Value and Their Criticisms of the Labour Theory of Value 5. Marshall’s Scissors, Time and the Principle of Continuity: Marshall on Method and Value Part II: Making Rational Sense of the Preceding Pieces of Intellectual History 6. Rationality in the History of Economic Thought: Methodological Interpretations and Conjectures I 7. Rationality in the History of Economic Thought: Methodological Interpretations and Conjectures II 8. Rationality in the History of Economic Thought: Methodological Interpretations and Conjectures III Appendix