Reorienting economics / / Tony Lawson

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910825685303321
• Autore: Lawson Tony
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: London ; ; New York : , : Routledge, , 2003
• ISBN: 1-134-52594-X; 1-283-59046-8; 9786613902917; 0-203-92996-9; 1-134-52595-8
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (405 p.)
• Collana: Economics as Social Theory
• Disciplina: 330.1
• Soggetti: Economics
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
• Nota di contenuto: Front Cover; Reorienting Economics; Copyright Page; Contents; Preface and acknowledgements; Part I: The current orientation of the discipline and the proposed alternative; 1. Four theses on the state of modern economics; Thesis 1; Deductivism; Thesis 2; Thesis 3; Ontology; Closed systems; Atomism and isolationism; A theory of social ontology; Fictions; Modelling successes; The nature of the argument; Thesis 4; Science; The mainstream project and science; Implications for the discipline of economics; 2. An ontological turn in economics; Context and philosophical method; Contending approaches to economic methodologyCritical realism in economics; Transcendental analysis and social theory; Specific strategies; A theory of social ontology; Social rules; Social positions; Internal relationality; Transformation and reproduction; Reproduction over space and time; Emergence and process; Human being and subjectivity; Habitus; Consciousness; Agency/structure interaction; Forward-looking behaviour; Personal identities and meaning; Limitations of perspective; Implications of the ontological enquiry; Errors and dangers; Clarification; Directionality; The context of ontology3. What has realism got to do with it?; Realist as a contrast to non-realist; Realist: more rather than less; Competing ; programmes; The problem with modern mainstream economics; A realist alternative; The situation in 'economic methodology'; Hausman and economics; Hausman and critical realism; Concluding remarks; Part II: Possibilities for economics; 4. Explanatory method for social science; Conditions of social explanatory endeavour; Causal explanation and retroduction; The central problem of social explanation; A point of departure; Contrasts and interest; An illustrative exampleScientific experiments once more; Plant breeding; Conditions of possibility of successes; Moving towards the social domain; Contrast explanation; Initiating the explanatory process and interest relativity; Directing the explanatory process; Discriminating between causal hypotheses; Facilitating explanatory research in the social domain; A seemingly general explanatory model; Demi-regularities; Enduring or widespread social processes; The feasibility of social explanation; 5. An evolutionary economics? On borrowing fromevolutionary biology; The allure of an evolutionary economicsThe biological and social connection; Evolutionary theory and metaphor; Advantages of the evolutionary model for social understanding:a preliminary orientation; The nature of social material; The biological model and mainstream economics; Natural selection; A biological example: the beaks of Darwin's finches; Towards a general evolutionary model; The PVRS model; The natural selection mechanism; Back to social processes; The PVRS evolutionary model as a transformational model ofsocial activity; Disanalogies between evolutionary biology and evolutionarysocial science
• Sommario/riassunto: This eagerly anticipated new book from Tony Lawson contends that economics can profit from a more explicit concern with ontology (enquiry into the nature of existence) than has been its custom. By admitting that economics is not exactly a picture of health at the moment, Lawson hopes that we can move away from the bafflingly intransigent belief that economics is at its core reliant upon mathematical modelling. This maths-envy is the reason why economics is in a state of such disarray. Far from being a polemic against the mainstream, this excellent new book is concerned that if economics is