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Schumpeter the incomplete rhetorician

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  • Deirdre Nansen McCloskey

    (University of Illinois at Chicago)

Abstract

Schumpeter’s Capitalism Socialism, Democracy was typical of 1942 in being pessimistic about all three terms of its title. Socialism would come, he thought, but without liberalism. His historical evidence was necessarily imperfect in light of later scholarship. But so too is his economics, good in parts, but falling in with the pre-analytic vision of the “imperfections” of something called “capitalism,” neither of which has held up well. The book later became popular because it had his characteristic breadth of scholarship, especially historical, but also his ironic stance on almost all issues. What’s finally missing in Schumpeter’s grim prognoses, largely falsified by events, is an acknowledgment of the power of language. Ideas, words, rhetoric, ideology, language games—indeed the world is governed, said another economist, by little else. Denying it is the paradox of the conflicted materialist writer: while denying rhetoric, he enacts it, for what purpose is unclear.

Suggested Citation

  • Deirdre Nansen McCloskey, 2022. "Schumpeter the incomplete rhetorician," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 35(4), pages 423-443, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:revaec:v:35:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s11138-020-00530-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s11138-020-00530-9
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Robert J. Gordon, 2016. "The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10544.
    2. Richard N Langlois, 2003. "Schumpeter And The Obsolescence Of The Entrepreneur," Advances in Austrian Economics, in: Austrian Economics and Entrepreneurial Studies, pages 283-298, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    3. Robert Higgs, 2008. "The Complex Course of Ideological Change," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(4), pages 547-565, October.
    4. Schumpeter, Joseph A., 1947. "The Creative Response in Economic History," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 149-159, November.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Schumpeter; Rhetoric; Capitalism; Ideology ideas; Words; Rhetoric; Ideology; Language games;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B2 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925
    • B3 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals
    • B11 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Preclassical (Ancient, Medieval, Mercantilist, Physiocratic)
    • O1 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development
    • N00 - Economic History - - General - - - General

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