Reorienting Economics

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ISBN: 9780415253352 | 0415253357
Cover: Hardcover
Copyright: 4/11/2003

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This eagerly anticipated new book from Tony Lawson contends that economics can profit from a more explicit concern with ontology (enquiry into the nature of existence) than has been its custom. By admitting that economics is not exactly a picture of health at the moment, Lawson hopes that we can move away from the bafflingly intransigent belief that economics is at its core reliant upon mathematical modelling. This maths-envy isthereason why economics is in a state of such disarray.

Preface and acknowledgements

Part I The current orientation of the discipline and the proposed alternative

(76)

Four theses on the state of modern economics

(25)

Thesis 1

(2)

Deductivism

(3)

Thesis 2

(3)

Thesis 3

(1)

Ontology

(1)

Closed systems

(1)

Atomism and isolationism

(3)

A theory of social ontology

(2)

Fictions

(2)

Modelling successes

(1)

The nature of the argument

(1)

Thesis 4

(2)

Science

(1)

The mainstream project and science

(2)

Implications for the discipline of economics

(1)

An ontological turn in economics

(35)

Context and philosophical method

(1)

Contending approaches to economic methodology

(3)

Critical realism in economics

(1)

Transcendental analysis and social theory

(1)

Specific strategies

(1)

A theory of social ontology

(1)

Social rules

(2)

Social positions

(1)

Internal relationality

(1)

Transformation and reproduction

(1)

Reproduction over space and time

(3)

Emergence and process

(1)

Human being and subjectivity

(1)

Habitus

(1)

Consciousness

(3)

Agency/structure interaction

(1)

Forward-looking behaviour

(2)

Personal identities and meaning

(1)

Limitations of perspective

(1)

Implications of the ontological enquiry

(1)

Errors and dangers

(4)

Clarification

(1)

Directionality

(2)

The context of ontology

(2)

What has realism got to do with it?

(14)

Realist as a contrast to non-realist

(1)

Realist: more rather than less

(1)

Competing programmes

(1)

The problem with modern mainstream economics

(2)

A realist alternative

(1)

The situation in 'economic methodology'

(1)

Hausman and economics

(3)

Hausman and critical realism

(1)

Concluding remarks

(3)

Part II Possibilities for economics

(88)

Explanatory method for social science

(31)

Conditions of social explanatory endeavour

(1)

Causal explanation and retroduction

(1)

The central problem of social explanation

(3)

A point of departure

(2)

Contrasts and interest

(1)

An illustrative example

(1)

Scientific experiments once more

(1)

Plant breeding

(1)

Conditions of possibility of successes

(1)

Moving towards the social domain

(3)

Contrast explanation

(1)

Initiating the explanatory process and interest relativity

(1)

Directing the explanatory process

(3)

Discriminating between causal hypotheses

(1)

Facilitating explanatory research in the social domain

(4)

A seemingly general explanatory model

102

(3)

Demi-regularities

105

(1)

Enduring or widespread social processes

106

(1)

The feasibility of social explanation

107

(3)

An evolutionary economics? On borrowing from evolutionary biology

110

(31)

The allure of an evolutionary economics

110

(3)

The biological and social connection

113

(1)

Evolutionary theory and metaphor

114

(2)

Advantages of the evolutionary model for social understanding: a preliminary orientation

116

(1)

The nature of social material

116

(2)

The biological model and mainstream economics

118

(1)

Natural selection

119

(1)

A biological example: the beaks of Darwin's finches

120

(1)

Towards a general evolutionary model

121

(2)

The PVRS model

123

(2)

The natural selection mechanism

125

(1)

Back to social processes

125

(1)

The PVRS evolutionary model as a transformational model of social activity

126

(3)

Disanalogies between evolutionary biology and evolutionary social science

129

(1)

The distinctiveness of the natural selection or biological evolutionary model

130

(1)

Evolutionary explanation as a limited epistemological case

131

(2)

Economics and metaphor

133

(1)

Memes and memetics

134

(5)

Tailoring to context

139

(2)

Economics as a distinct social science? The nature, scope and method of economics

141

(24)

A background of competing conceptions of economics

141

(2)

A conception of science: previous results

143

(2)

Retroduction

145

(1)

Different aspects of science

146

(1)

Social science

147

(2)

The study of social phenomena as a distinct science?

149

(1)

The nature and scope of economics?: Towards a synthesis

150

(2)

A reassessment of Robbins' essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science

152

(1)

Robbins' opposition to the 'materialist' or wealth-based formulations

153

(1)

Robbins and scientific generalisations

154

(2)

Robbins and the generalisations of economics

156

(2)

Robbins' conception and its mainstream interpretation as 'the science of choice or rational action'

158

(3)

Economics as a separate or distinct social science?

161

(1)

A final argument for separation

162

(2)

A conception of economics

164

(1)

Part III Heterodox traditions of modern economics

165

(80)

The nature of post Keynesianism and the problem of delineating the various heterodox traditions

168

(16)

The question of coherence

169

(1)

The more prominent features of post Keynesianism

169

(1)

Towards coherence

170

(3)

Keynes' realist orientation

173

(4)

Competing theories and policies within post Keynesianism

177

(2)

Implications of the sort of coherence found

179

(1)

The range of heterodox traditions: commonality and distinctions

180

(1)

A suggested basis for distinguishing amongst the heterodox traditions

180

(1)

The place of economics in social science

181

(1)

The place of the heterodox traditions within economics

182

(2)

Institutional economics and realist social theorising

184

(34)

Evolutionary science and ontology

185

(3)

Method, theory of knowledge and judgemental orientation

188

(1)

Veblen's evolutionary epistemology

189

(1)

Veblen as a thoroughgoing evolutionist

190

(2)

The textual evidence for the claim that Veblen is a thoroughgoing evolutionist

192

(3)

Veblen's evaluative orientation

195

(1)

Critical ontology and determinate negation

196

(2)

Veblen's support for the evolutionary method

198

(2)

The puzzle of Veblen's reticence about supporting the evolutionary approach

200

(1)

Coherence of meaning

201

(1)

The legacy of a constructive programme

202

(2)

The nature of Veblen's contribution

204

(1)

A transformational social ontology

204

(1)

Veblen's evolutionary economics

205

(3)

The place of the evolutionary method within economics

208

(2)

Evolutionary science, institutions and natural selection

210

(2)

Habits, institutions and the transformational model

212

(2)

Implications for modern old institutionalism

214

(3)

Making the most of Veblen

217

(1)

Feminism, realism and universalism

218

(27)

The practice of a priori universalising

218

(2)

Feminism and realism

220

(1)

An indication that realism/ontology matters

221

(1)

Illustration 1: the formalistic modelling of social processes

221

(1)

The particularity of formalistic modelling

222

(1)

A structured ontology

223

(1)

Conditions for closure

224

(1)

The social domain

225

(1)

Social positions and relations as integral to social reality

226

(1)

The importance of internal relations

227

(1)

Formalistic modelling as a generalised tool of social science

228

(1)

Illustration 2: positioned interests as essential to epistemic practice

229

(1)

An epistemology for an open system

229

(2)

Contrastive explanation

231

(2)

Situated knowing

233

(1)

Contrastive explanation and feminist epistemology

233

(4)

Illustration 3: the possibility of human emancipation

237

(1)

There is more to reality than the course of events and states of affairs

238

(1)

Human nature

239

(1)

Needs

240

(1)

Grounding the possibility of human emancipation

241

(2)

Final comments

243

(2)

Part IV A historical perspective on economic practice

245

(38)

An explanation of the mathematising tendency in modern mainstream economics

247

(36)

The phenomenon to explain

247

(1)

An explanatory first step

248

(2)

A further puzzle

250

(1)

The nature of the expanded explanatory thesis

251

(1)

Evolutionary explanation

251

(1)

The natural selection model

252

(2)

The PVRS model

254

(2)

Modern mainstream economics

256

(1)

Basic components of the social evolutionary story

256

(1)

Interactors and replicators

257

(2)

Origins

259

(1)

The drive to mathematise economics in France

260

(3)

The culture of mathematics in France

263

(1)

The environment: orientations to the mathematisation of social phenomena

264

(1)

The Impact of Jean-Baptiste Say

265

(4)

The reception of Walras

269

(2)

A shifting environment: reinterpreting mathematics

271

(2)

The political environment

273

(1)

The post-World War II US context

274

(3)

Feed-forward and feed-backward mechanisms

277

(3)

Overview and further questions

280

(3)

Notes

283

(64)

Bibliography

347

(23)

Name Index

370

(6)

Subject Index

376

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Reorienting Economics

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials