IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v10y1998i2p175-197.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Was Keynes a Realist?

Author

Listed:
  • Ralf Eriksson

Abstract

Lawson (1989a) has interpreted Keynes as a philosophical realist, adhering to the view that the economy has a constant inner structure. Against this it is claimed below that, although Keynes speaks about realism, it is not in this sense, but in the common sense way of referring to actually observable entities of an economic model. In addition, it can be shown that Keynes's views can be interpreted as instrumentalist—he emphasises characteristics such as usefulness and convenience, besides and instead of truth. Thus, truth and truthlike concepts do not, in Keynes's thinking, have the paramount position that they have in realist philosophy.

Suggested Citation

  • Ralf Eriksson, 1998. "Was Keynes a Realist?," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 175-197.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:10:y:1998:i:2:p:175-197
    DOI: 10.1080/09538259800000024
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09538259800000024
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09538259800000024?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. Moggridge, D E, 1992. "The," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 207-209, Summer.
    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. Paul Downward, "undated". "Risk, Uncertainty and Inference in Post Keynesian Economics:A Realist Commentary," Working Papers 98-8, Staffordshire University, Business School.
    2. Ralf Eriksson, 2006. "Eriksson on Critical Realism: a rejoinder," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 113-118.
    3. Bernard Walters & David Young, 2001. "Critical Realism as a Basis for Economic Methodology: A critique," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 483-501.

    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. Dow Alexander & Dow Sheila C., 2011. "Animal Spirits Revisited," Capitalism and Society, De Gruyter, vol. 6(2), pages 1-25, December.
    2. Sonya Marie SCOTT, 2020. "Rejoinder on animal spirits in Descartes and Keynes: a response to Kurt Smith," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 13(2), pages 185-201, November.
    3. Michel Dévoluy, 2021. "Nouveau livre en accès libre : L’économie : une science « impossible » – Déconstruire pour avancer (éditions Vérone, 2e trimestre 2019)," Bulletin de l'Observatoire des politiques économiques en Europe, Observatoire des Politiques Économiques en Europe (OPEE), vol. 44(1), pages 56-56, July.
    4. Sebastian Edwards, 2018. "Keynes on the Sequencing of Economic Policy: Recovery and Reform in 1933," NBER Working Papers 24367, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Mervyn Allister King, 1993. "Debt Deflation: Theory and Evidence," FMG Discussion Papers dp175, Financial Markets Group.
    6. Esteban Caldentey & Matías Vernengo, 2010. "How Stimulative Has Fiscal Policy Been Around the World?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 6-31.
    7. Peter Groenewegen, 1995. "Keynes and Marshall: Methodology, Society, and Politics," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 27(5), pages 129-155, Supplemen.
    8. Muchlinski, Elke, 2003. "Épistémologie et probabilité chez Keynes," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 79(1), pages 57-70, Mars-Juin.
    9. Gilbert Faccarello, 2017. "Sæculum," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 625-639, July.
    10. Roger E. Backhouse & Bradley W. Bateman, 2009. "Keynes and Capitalism," History of Political Economy, Duke University Press, vol. 41(4), pages 645-671, Winter.
    11. Jespersen Jesper, 2000. "Some Aspects of J. M. Keynes's Theoretical Contributions to the Economic Debate of the 1920's'," Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook, De Gruyter, vol. 41(1), pages 219-224, June.
    12. Muchlinski, Elke, 2003. "Against rigid rules: Keynes's economic theory," Discussion Papers 2003/2, Free University Berlin, School of Business & Economics.
    13. Constantinos Repapis, 2014. "J.M. Keynes, F.A. Hayek and the Common Reader," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 3(2), pages 1-1, September.
    14. Steven Pressman, 2009. "Keynes, Family Allowances and Post Keynesian Anti-Poverty Policy," LIS Working papers 525, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    15. Birner Jack, 1992. "On The Power Of Ideas Of The Past," Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, De Gruyter, vol. 3(4), pages 557-572, December.
    16. Joshua S. Gans & George B. Shepherd, 1994. "How Are the Mighty Fallen: Rejected Classic Articles by Leading Economists," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 165-179, Winter.
    17. Anna M. Carabelli & Mario A. Cedrini, 2014. "Keynes's General Theory , Treatise on Money and Tract on Monetary Reform : different theories, same methodological approach?," The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 1060-1084, December.
    18. Pedro Garcia Duarte & Yann Giraud, 2014. "Chasing the B: A Bibliographic Account of Economics’ Relation to its Past, 1991-2011," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2014_06, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    19. Jonas Agell & Per Lundborg, 2003. "Survey Evidence on Wage Rigidity and Unemployment: Sweden in the 1990s," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 105(1), pages 15-30, March.
    20. Elke Muchlinski, 1998. "The Philosophy of John Maynard Keynes (A Reconsideration)," Cahiers d'Économie Politique, Programme National Persée, vol. 30(1), pages 227-253.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:revpoe:v:10:y:1998:i:2:p:175-197. 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/CRPE20 .

    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.