the delusions of economics_ the - rist, gilbert

[...]... None of these founding fathers seems to have been personally involved in the debates and experiments that accompanied the birth of the new science But, in keeping with the spirit of the age, they tried to understand their chosen field in terms of natural laws and value-neutral ‘science’, shaking off the constraints that had hitherto subjected production, consumption and exchange to the authority of the. .. connection with the original and indestructible powers of the land.’ In plain language, this means that the cost of coal or stones corresponds solely to the cost of their extraction ‘Nothing is given for the use of air and water,’ he continues, ‘or for any other of the gifts of nature which exist in boundless quantity … In the same manner, the brewer, the distiller, the dyer, make incessant use of the air... Antiquity already used the functional metaphor of the body and its limbs to justify the disparity of social conditions, allocating pre-eminence to the ‘head’, and the debate resumed with the social contract theories of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau Of course, in keeping with the spirit of the times, these authors imagined human life in the state of nature (which did not have the sense of a prior historical... means, including the repression of workers’ struggles in nineteenth-century Europe, the colonization of large parts of the world and, more recently, the imposition of IMF structural adjustment plans in the countries of the South HOW TO CONSTRUCT SOCIETY? In social and political debate, the emergence of the individual raised (or reraised) the old problem of how a society ‘holds together’ as a single... economics journalists In the end, ‘an “economist” is someone who manages to get himself recognized as such’.2 The important point here is that, for the ‘vanguard’ of the profession – those at the top of the ladder – their work has a ‘purely’ scientific status characterized by mathematical formalization.3 The use of mathematical models is the subject of debate within the economics profession: not everyone... The classical economists are partly responsible for this false track Apart from their ignorance of thermodynamics (which they can hardly be blamed for), they placed unshakeable trust in the cost-free ‘bounty’ of nature Ricardo, for example, approved of Adam Smith’s assertion that the rent of coal mines, and of stone quarries, … is paid for the value of the coal or stone which can be removed from them,... between physical facts (the objects of the physical-mathematical sciences of astronomy and mechanics) and psychic facts (the objects of the psychicmathematical sciences – that is, of economics).24 Does this mean that he has given up trying to keep economics within the fold of mechanics? Not at all On the next page he states: ‘It is easy to make mathematicians see that [the] procedure [of economics] is rigorously... absolute scarcity The question then becomes whether scarcity lies behind us or in front of us THE IMPOTENCE OF ECONOMIC ‘REASON’ To repeat: the mathematization of economics is not the issue: it is not the origin of some major aberration from normal economic ‘science’.32 Each science is free to choose its tools and modes of expression The fundamental problem is not one of method but one of underlying assumptions... that the particular characteristics of the situation and of the context where the observed is placed will not affect his psychology to the point where his behaviour becomes unintelligible to the observer If the behaviour of the observed appears to the observer to be difficult to comprehend, it is not due to the fact that their ‘psychologies’ are different but, for example, because certain elements of the. .. ‘superintending the industry of private people’ (vol 2, p 208) The founding works of political economy should thus be seen primarily as a critique of absolutism that closely links economic liberty to political liberty At the same time, the theory of the harmony of interests makes morality unnecessary, by removing the disapproval that attaches to envy and the pursuit of individual interests See Jean-Claude . those at the top of the ladder – their work has a ‘purely’ scientific status characterized by mathematical formalization. 3 The use of mathematical models is the subject of debate within the economics. Burkina Faso, the name of the African state, means ‘homeland of real men’ (implying…); China considered itself the ‘Middle Kingdom’ – that is, the centre of the earth; Cuzco is the ‘navel of the world’. or theorems are self-evident, is often a matter of the dominant political agenda. Debates within the economics corporation therefore tend to be lively, and any kid gloves soon come off as the