IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/eujhet/v9y2002i1p72-95.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Content and method: an epistemic perspective on some historical episodes

Author

Listed:
  • Brian Loasby

Abstract

The double contrast between allocation and process and between formal proof and empirically based reasoning is selectively applied to the history of economics. Hume's rejection of provable knowledge led to Smith's psychological explanation of science and thence to his theory of growth through the division of labour. Marshall's cautious theorizing and cognitively based evolutionary perspective stimulated contrasting responses from Sraffa and Young. Robinson matched method to content but Chamberlin did not, and Andrews's attempt to develop a process-based price theory met more resistance than Penrose's reinvention of growth theory. We currently observe conflicting methods of handling evolution and business strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian Loasby, 2002. "Content and method: an epistemic perspective on some historical episodes," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 72-95.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:9:y:2002:i:1:p:72-95
    DOI: 10.1080/09672560110103397
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09672560110103397
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09672560110103397?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Salvatore Rizzello, 1999. "The Economics of the Mind," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1900.
    2. Axel Leijonhufvud, 2000. "Macroeconomic Instability and Coordination," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 750.
    3. Cavalieri, Duccio, 2001. "On Some Controversial Aspects of Sraffa's Theoretical System in the Second Half of the 1920s," MPRA Paper 43737, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Foss, Nicolai J, 1999. "Edith Penrose, Economics and Strategic Management," Contributions to Political Economy, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 18(0), pages 87-104.
    5. G. B. Richardson, 1998. "The Economics of Imperfect Knowledge," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1524.
    6. Cosmides, Leda & Tooby, John, 1994. "Better than Rational: Evolutionary Psychology and the Invisible Hand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 327-332, May.
    7. Allyn A. Young, 1913. "Pigou's Wealth and Welfare," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 27(4), pages 672-686.
    8. Armen A. Alchian, 1950. "Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 58(3), pages 211-211.
    9. R. L. Hall & C. J. Hitch, 1939. "Price Theory And Business Behaviour," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 0(1), pages 12-45.
    10. Frederic S. Lee & Peter E. Earl (ed.), 1993. "The Economics of Competitive Enterprise," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 279.
    11. Richardson, G B, 1972. "The Organisation of Industry," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(327), pages 883-896, September.
    12. John Nightingale, 1998. "Jack Downie's Competitive Process: The First Articulated Population Ecological Model in Economics," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 30(3), pages 369-412, Fall.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Menudo, Jose M., 2011. "Market Stability in Adam Smith: Competitive Process and Institutions," MPRA Paper 15361, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Finch, 2000. "Is post-Marshallian economics an evolutionary research tradition?," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 377-406.
    2. Loasby, Brian J., 2002. "The evolution of knowledge: beyond the biological model," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8-9), pages 1227-1239, December.
    3. John Finch & Nicola Dinnei, 2001. "Capturing Knightian Advantages of Large Business Organisations Through Group Decision-making Processes," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 379-403.
    4. Kim, Jongwook & Mahoney, Joseph T., 2008. "A Strategic Theory of the Firm as a Nexus of Incomplete Contracts: A Property Rights Approach," Working Papers 08-0108, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Business.
    5. Jean-Luc Gaffard, 2022. "Instabilité et résilience des économies de marché: Essai sur l'économie du libéralisme social," GREDEG Working Papers 2022-33, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    6. Brian Loasby, 2012. "Edith Penrose and George Richardson," Chapters, in: Michael Dietrich & Jackie Krafft (ed.), Handbook on the Economics and Theory of the Firm, chapter 18, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    7. Sidney G. Winter, 2017. "Pursuing the evolutionary agenda in economics and management research," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 41(3), pages 721-747.
    8. Jacobs Martin, 2016. "Accounting for Changing Tastes: Approaches to Explaining Unstable Individual Preferences," Review of Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 67(2), pages 121-183, August.
    9. Erik Stam, 2006. "A process model of locational change in entrpreneurial firms: an evolutionary perspective," Chapters, in: Andreas Pyka & Horst Hanusch (ed.), Applied Evolutionary Economics and the Knowledge-based Economy, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Ani Guerdjikova & John Quiggin, 2019. "Market Selection With Differential Financial Constraints," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(5), pages 1693-1762, September.
    11. Yahya Madra & Fikret Adaman, 2013. "Neoliberal reason and its forms:Depoliticization through economization," Working Papers 2013/07, Bogazici University, Department of Economics.
    12. H. Lorne Carmichael & W. Bentley MacLeod, 1997. "Territorial Bargaining," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 343., Boston College Department of Economics.
    13. Downward, Paul, 2004. "Post Keynesian pricing theory: Alternative foundations and prospects for future research," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 661-670, October.
    14. Teppo Felin & Nicolai J. Foss, 2004. "Organizational Routines A Sceptical Look," DRUID Working Papers 04-13, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    15. Alessandro Arrighetti & Fabio Landini & Andrea Lasagni, 2021. "Swimming upstream throughout the turmoil: Evidence on firm growth during the great recession," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 68(3), pages 322-344, July.
    16. Givanni Bonfani & Marco Villani, 2013. "Exaptation in innovation processes: theory and models," Chapters, in: Anna Grandori (ed.), Handbook of Economic Organization, chapter 10, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Gigante, Anna Azzurra, 2016. "“Reviewing Path Dependence Theory in Economics: Micro–Foundations of Endogenous Change Processes”," MPRA Paper 75310, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Eggertsson, Thrainn, 1997. "The old theory of economic policy and the new institutionalism," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(8), pages 1187-1203, August.
    19. Silver, Steven D. & Raseta, Marko & Bazarova, Alina, 2023. "Stochastic resonance in the recovery of signal from agent price expectations," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    20. Jackie Krafft, 2010. "Profiting in the info-communications in the age of broadband: lessons and new considerations," Post-Print hal-00203801, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:eujhet:v:9:y:2002:i:1:p:72-95. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/REJH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.