Geschichte der Wirtschaftstheorie und Wirtschaftsgeschichte: Einleitung

This introduction to the collection of essays in this issue of the Jahrbuch distinguishes a ‘positivist’, a ‘relativist’ and a ‘political’ approach to the history of economic thought. The 'positivist’ history of economic theory as a series of reconstructions of past theoretical attempts is a history of progressive discoveries of the modern mainstream, whereas there are different forms of ‘historical relativism’: past theories as determined by past material circumstances which differ as ‘modes of production’, past economic ideas as conditioned by ethical norms pertaining to different ideal types and finally different economic styles describing a co-evolution of the social and economic and of the mental sphere. The ‘political orientation’ of past economic doctrines appears as determined by the embedding of the economy in society in pre-modern times, while modern political economy reflects the divergent interests in a disembedded capitalist society.