How Economics Forgot History: The Problem of Historical Specificity in Social Science

by Hodgson; Geoffrey M

• ISBN13: 9780415257169
• ISBN10: 0415257166
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-12
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

InHow Economics Forgot History, Hodgson calls into question the tendency of economic method to try and explain all economic phenomena by using the same catch-all theories and dealing in universal truths. He argues that you need different theories to analyse different economic phenomena and systems and that historical context must be taken into account.

Author Biography

Geoffrey M. Hodgson is a Research Professor in Business Studies at the University of Hertfordshire.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	xi
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgements	xix
PART I Introduction	1	(40)
The limitations of general theory	3	(18)
The problem of historical specificity	21	(20)
PART II The nineteenth century: the German historical school and its impact	41	(94)
Dramatis personae	41	(2)
Karl Marx and the specificity of the capitalist system	43	(13)
The older historical school in Germany	56	(9)
The historical school in the British Isles	65	(10)
The methodological failure of the older historical school	75	(4)
Out of Austria: Carl Menger and the Methodenstreit	79	(16)
Alfred Marshall and the British Methodendiskurs	95	(18)
The responses of the younger historical school in Germany	113	(22)
PART III The twentieth century: from American institutionalism to the end of history	135	(136)
Dramatis personae	135	(2)
Thorstein Veblen and the foundations of Institutionalism	137	(15)
Early American institutionalism and the problem of historical specificity	152	(14)
The theoretical manifesto of John Commons	166	(12)
Talcott Parsons and the ascent of ahistorical sociology	178	(26)
Death and counter-revolution at the London School of Economics	204	(11)
John Maynard Keynes and his declaration of a General Theory	215	(17)
The triumph of barren universality	232	(16)
Institution blindness and the end of history	248	(23)
PART IV The millennium: the second coming of history?	271	(85)
Are there universals in social and economic theory?	273	(14)
Property, culture, habits and institutions	287	(23)
Exchange and production: property and firms	310	(12)
A note on social formations and levels of abstraction	322	(8)
An evolutionary perspective on the historical problem	330	(16)
Invention is helpless without tradition	346	(10)
Bibliography	356	(47)
Index	403