JOURNAL ARTICLE
Cite JOURNAL ARTICLE
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Economics and Its Discontents
Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Vol. 135 (2015), Iss. 2 : pp. 133–141
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Benjamin M. Friedman, Harvard University, Dep. Of Economics, Littauer Center 127, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Abstract
In contrast to its historical origins as a part of moral philosophy, and subsequent evolution as „political economy", economics in recent decades has self-defined its scope of inquiry increasingly narrowly. And, as is well known, over time the field has imposed on itself ever more rigorous standards of analytical formalization. Both trends are understandable, but each comes at high cost. Moreover, the formalization requirement is often imposed arbitrarily, excluding some dimensions from the analysis because they are hard to formalize while admitting others without question. As a result, the field has been largely unable to address some of the first-magnitude problems the Western economies now face.