Review of Economic Philosophy

Tag: Methodological individualism

  • Friedrich Hayek vs. Karl Popper : elements for a debate on economic knowledge

    Abstract

    Hayek’s and Popper’s bibliographies, their biographies, their methodological theses in favor of individualism, their common commitment against historicism, historism and planism, and crossed references in their writings bring us to infer (at least) some intellectual debate between them, or even some deeper mutual understanding. It is not. Hayek and Popper demonstrate on their own that history cannot provide the social sciences with nomological statements. This confusing coincidence and their “friendship” are nothing but the conclusion of autonomous and together irrelevant views about scientific knowledge in economics. We inquire in this paper their analysis of historicism and the status they attribute to experiments; we conclude that Hayek and Popper opted for diverging paths in the epistemology of the social sciences.

    Key-words

    Anticipations, Economic calculus, Scientific knowledge, Historicism, Methodological individualism, Monism

    Classification JEL : B19, B31, B41

  • The individual and the society in Walras

    Abstract

    Modern analyses present the general equilibrium as an archetype of methodological individualism, enabling the reconciliation of individual interests through the market. This article aims at showing the originality and the specificity of the treatment of this issue by Walras. We first show that Walras considers the individual (oneself) and the society (the others) as natural objects, which necessarily coexist, thus rejecting an individualistic ontology. But Walras also rejects holism and develops an analysis that considers the individual and the state as two complementary and inseparable entities. This results in a vision of the economic role of the state that is far removed from individualistic liberalism. The state must intervene to make free enterprise possible by organizing markets and maintaining competition. To do so, the state must have its own resources, not obtained through taxation, but through the nationalization of the land.

    JEL classification: B4, B13, B21.

    Keywords

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