Ching-Yao Hsieh

This book traces the relationship between ideas and methodological perspectives in economics to the fields of philosophy and the physical sciences. It is aimed at students of economics who want to learn about the philosophical underpinnings and scientific foundations of contemporary economic theory. The authors show how advances in scientific knowledge have had an impact on philosophy that in turn influenced the development of economic thought.

This book traces the relationship between ideas and methodological perspectives in economics to the fields of philosophy and the physical sciences. It is aimed at students of economics who want to learn about the philosophical underpinnings and scientific foundations of contemporary economic theory. The authors show how advances in scientific knowledge have had an impact on philosophy that in turn influenced the development of economic thought.

First published in 1986. Since the late 1960s the seeming inability of traditional monetary and fiscal policies to combat " stagflation" and address other macroeconomic issues has accelerated the erosion of confidence in the prevailing economic paradigm , the " neoclassical synthesis." * Dissensions among the members of the economics profession on both sides of the Atlantic have grown in number. By the 1970s, a majority of economists had recognized a " crisis" in economic theory. Parallel to this development, a crisis has also emerged in the Marxian camp. This volume is a discussion from the various schools of thought around three of the salient common grounds follows: the theory of a monetary economy, the disequilibrium foundations of a general equilibrium theory, and a rekindled interest in institutional factors.