Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

292 Economics
In both cases, economics is the ‘formal logic of rational choice’ of economic
agents. The implicit assumption is that the general market equilibrium occurs
spontaneously out of the unrestricted endeavours of individuals to maximize
their preferences.
There was no empirical verification of this pattern of economic thinking,
current among academic economists before the great depression, but it was
nevertheless confronted with reality. The masses of the unemployed and the idle
productive facilities during the depression made many economists realize that
major economic problems had been excluded from orthodox theory, and that
their micro-instruments of the “logic of choice” were completely inadequate to
tackle the problems society then faced.
The Keynes revolution emerged out of the violent opposition of some aca-
demic economists to this proposition, which seemed at first sight entirely con-
tradictory to neo-classical orthodoxy. The same reasons, however, that made or-
thodox theory an instrument of defence for the existing social system prevented
Keynesian economics from explaining the actual functioning principles of the
system as a whole. Here is Keynes’ epitaph, full of subtle irony and, as it seemed
then, a swansong for orthodox theory: ‘That if (the official doctrine) reached
conclusions quite different from what the ordinary uninstructed person would
expect, added, I suppose, to its intellectual prestige. That its teaching, translated
into practice, was austere and often unpalatable, lent it virtue. That it was adapt-
ed to carry a vast and consistent logical superstructure, gave it beauty. That it
could explain much social injustice and apparent cruelty as an inevitable incident
in the scheme of progress, and the attempt to change such things as likely on
the whole to do more harm than good, commended it to authority. That it
afforded a measure of justification to the free activities of theindividual capital-
ist, attracted to it the support of the dominant social force behind authority’
(General Theory ..., pp. 32-33).
It is not necessary to linger on Keynes’ ideas, which are generally known to
economists and others in the social sciences, but it is worth while considering
certain methodological consequences of this new doctrine.
His argumentation is macro-economic, employing such aggregates as national
income, demand (social), supply (social), investment, savings. This radical break
with the traditions of marginalist economics paved the way towards a more
dynamic economic theory.
Born of practical economic needs, the Keynes’ theory was of necessity essen-
tially praxiological; but it attempted to provide a praxiologico-economic basis
for economic decisions by analysing real social and economic problems. It also
attempted to complement the rational theory of choice of the economic indivi-
dual by a veritable macro-praxiology. This is common to much contemporary
economic writing which will be discussed briefly below.
B. Towards the integration of economic science?
The preceding section outlined the main developmental trends in economic
science during this century, setting developments in the main schools and trends