Rationality in Economic Thought : Methodological Ideas on the History of Political Economy

by Ochangco, Armando C.

• ISBN13: 9781858989556
• ISBN10: 1858989558
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Edward Elgar Pub

Author Biography

Armando C. Ochangco is Professorial Lecturer in the School of Economics and Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Philippines, The Philippines

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements	xi	(4)
Abbreviations	xv
Introduction	1	(6)
PART ONE NARRATION AND INTERPRETATION: METHODS, ARGUMENTS, DISAGREEMENTS	7	(204)
1. The Nature of Smith's and Ricardo's Inquiries, Their Ideas on Value, and Ricardo's Criticisms of Smith	7	(44)
1.1 Smith's Inquiry as a "Practical" Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations	8	(2)
1.2 Smith's Ideas on Value and Their Place in His Inquiry	10	(8)
1.3 Ricardo's Principles as a "Theoretical" Inquiry the "Principal Problem" of Which Was to Inquire into the "Laws" of Distribution	18	(1)
1.4 Ricardo's Theory of Value and the "Laws of Distribution"	19	(9)
1.5 Ricardo's Criticisms of Smith's Ideas on Value: Continuities and Conflicts	28	(13)
1.6 A Methodological Excursus: A Heuristic Towards Understanding the Heterogeneity of Economic Discourse	41	(10)
2. Marx's Critical Theory: On Method, Value and Exploitation, Accumulation and the Contradictions of Capitalism	51	(34)
2.1 Notes on Marx's Method	51	(6)
2.2 A Methodological Interlude: Interpreting Inquiries and the "Grammar" of Claims and Arguments in Economic Thought	57	(1)
2.3 Value, Exploitation, Accumulation and the Contradictions of Capitalism; Value and Prices	58	(19)
2.4 A Methodological Excursus: Economic Discourse as Purposive-Instrumental Involving Heterogeneous Performatives and Modalities	77	(8)
3. Marx's Critique of Smith and Ricardo on Method and Value: Dialectical Appropriations and Transcendence	85	(36)
3.1 On the Errors and Inadequacies of Smith's Method and Ideas on Value	85	(13)
3.2 On Ricardo's Method and Theory of Value	98	(8)
3.3 Marx's Criticisms of the "Classical School" in General as Regards Method and Value. Other Related General Criticisms of the "Classical School"	106	(7)
3.4 A Methodological Interlude: Criticisms, Dialectics of Ideas, and the Growth of Economic Knowledge	113	(8)
4. Jevons and Walras on the Nature of Economic Inquiry, Their Ideas on Value and Their Criticisms of the Labour Theory of Value	121	(48)
4.1 Jevons and Walras on Method: Comparative Notes	121	(7)
4.2 Jevons's General Principles of Economics: the Mechanics of Self-interest and Utility	128	(6)
4.3 Walras's General Equilibrium Theory of Value	134	(7)
4.4 Jevons's and Walras's Criticisms of the Labour Theory of Value	141	(12)
4.5 A Methodological Excursus: Intellectual Systems, Domains of Discourse, and the Appropriate Canons of Inquiry	153	(16)
5. Marshall's Scissors, Time and the Principle of Continuity: Marshall on Method and Value	169	(42)
5.1 The Marshallian Mode of Thinking	169	(10)
5.2 Marshall's Scissors, Time, and the Principle of Continuity	179	(10)
5.3 Marshall's Theory of Value and That of His Predecessors: Continuities and Conflicts	189	(22)
PART TWO MAKING RATIONAL SENSE OF THE PRECEDING PIECES OF INTELLECTUAL HISTORY	211	(90)
6. Rationality in the History of Economic Thought: Methodological Interpretations and Conjectures I	211	(28)
6.1 Heterogeneity of Arguments and Criticisms in the Preceding Intellectual History	211	(3)
6.2 Problems, Aims, and Nature of Inquiry	214	(5)
6.3 Towards a Pluralist-Instrumentalist Interpretation of Economic Discourse	219	(1)
6.4 Methods and Norms of Inquiry	220	(5)
6.5 Concepts and Conceptual Schemes	225	(5)
6.6 Problems/Aims, Norms of Inquiry, and Conceptual Schemes	230	(9)
7. Rationality in the History of Economic Thought: Methodological Interpretations and Conjectures II	239	(26)
7.1 World Views, Theories, Ontologies	239	(7)
7.2 From "Descriptive-Interpretation" Towards "Normative-Interpretation" of the History of Political Economy: Some Preliminary Distinctions	246	(4)
7.3 Can the Preceding Disagreements/Differences Be Rationally Understood and "Objectively" Resolved by Appeal to Empirical-Factual and Logical Considerations Alone?	250	(15)
8. Rationality in the History of Economic Thought: Methodological Interpretations and Conjectures III	265	(36)
8.1 Has the Preceding Historical Movement of Ideas Generated Progress in the "Theory of Value"? Notes Towards a Dynamic-Normative-Pluralist Interpretation of the History of Economic Inquiry	265	(29)
8.2 Further General Remarks and Summary	294	(7)
Appendix: Debreu and Sraffa: Notes on Some Recent Developments in the History of the Theory of Value	301	(16)
Debreu's Theory of Value: Mathematical Formalism and General Equilibrium	301	(5)
Sraffa's "Surplus Approach"	306	(11)
Selected Bibliography	317	(8)
Index	325