Complexity and the History of Economic Thought (Perspectives on the History of Economic Thought)

✍ Scribed by David Colander

• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 262
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

A new approach to science has recently developed. It is called the complexity approach. A number of researchers, such as Brian Arthur and Buz Brock, have used this approach to consider issues in economics. This volume considers the complexity approach to economics from a history of thought and methodological perspectives. It finds that the ideas underlying complexity have been around for a long time, and that this new work in complexity has many precursors in the history of economic thought.This book consists of twelve studies on the issue of complexity and the history of economic thought. The studies relate complexity to the ideas of specific economists such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Alfred Marshall and Ragnar Frisch, as well as to specific schools of thought such as the Austrian and Institutionalist schools.The result of looking a the history of economic thought from a complexity perspective not only gives us additional insight into the complexity vision, it also gives insight into the history of economic thought. When that history is viewed from a complexity perspective, the rankings of past economists change. Smith and Hayek move up in the rankings while Ricardo moves down.

✦ Table of Contents

Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of figures......Page 8
List of contributors......Page 9
Preface......Page 12
Introduction......Page 14
Introduction to complexity and the history of thought......Page 26
What is complexity?......Page 28
A thumbnail sketch of the history of thought from a complexity perspective......Page 44
Specific economists and complexity......Page 58
Charles Babbage in a complex world......Page 60
Did Marx know the way to Santa Fe? Reflections on evolution, functionalism, and class consciousness......Page 71
Complexity in Peirce's economics and philosophy: an exploration of his critique of Simon Newcomb......Page 87
The premature death of path dependence......Page 117
Complexity, chaos, or randomness: Ragnar Frisch and the enigma of the lost manuscript......Page 129
Broader views on complexity......Page 140
Will complexity turn economics into sociology?......Page 142
Marshall and the role of common sense in complex systems......Page 168
Competition, rationality, and complexity in economics and biology......Page 206
Alternative perspectives on complexity......Page 226
Complexity and economic method: an institutionalist perspective......Page 228
Complexity theory: an Austrian perspective......Page 240
Index......Page 254