Should Economics Be an Evolutionary Science? Veblen’s Concern and Philosophical Legacy
Author(s)
Lawson, Tony
Abstract
“Why is economics not an evolutionary science?” It is now over a hundred years since Thorstein Veblen formulated this question, possibly the most famous of all questions in the history of economics. Despite some recent rather compelling assessments that Veblen’s philosophical contribution is primarily a “deconstructive” project in epistemology, one similar in some ways to that of modern postmodernists. I want to argue to the contrary that, in matters philosophical at least, Veblen’s primary legacy is (i) a constructive program after all (as traditionalists within institutionalism have mostly maintained) albeit one that is (ii) grounded in ontology (as few institutionalists appear explicitly to have argued). With space here highly restricted I mostly concentrate on defending (i) against recent criticisms, though I do also, and necessarily, touch on (ii).
