Vincent J. Tarascio

The problem of progress in economic science

ConclusionIn view of the above, one might ask: In what sense is economic science a rational enterprise? The issues discussed certainly do not come as any surprise to practicing economists, yet the prevailing view seems to be that the solutions to these problems lie in corrective improvements within the content of naturalistic methodology. The prevailing philosophy of science in economics is not and never has been a product of practice in the social sciences, as was the case in the natural sciences. Instead, it was transplanted into economics, and later the other social sciences, because of a demonstration effect: the impressive progress of the natural sciences. Therefore, acceptance was a consequence of belief rather than experience.One can excuse the early positivists, such as Pareto, since they were influenced by their environment and it seemed to them that, as Comte had argued earlier, there was only one science to be applied to all phenomena, both social and natural. What is remarkable is that this belief has persisted so long, in spite of the fact that progress in the social sciences has failed to keep up with that of the natural sciences, or even to live up to expectations.The solution to the problem of progress in the social sciences, if one exists, has been an elusive one. Certainly, the solutions offered by the early critics of orthodox methodology turned out to be equally unimpressive in practice. Nevertheless, the currently uneasy complacency among practitioners that somehow “better” theories within the context of the prevailing methodology will somehow lead to greater progress in our sciences will likely result in further disappointments.

An Intellectual Autobiography

Although this essay is essentially an intellectual biography, personal experiences have influenced my career as an economist and historian of economic thought. For this reason, I shall devote some space to these experiences before turning to the main topic. My parents migrated from Sicily to the United States prior to the First World War; met and then married in this country and eventually settled in Hartford, Connecticut. I was conceived in 1929, the year of the Great Crash and born the following year at the onset of the Great Depression. However, for my family our economic depression had begun in 1929, when my father was seriously injured at a construction site and spent the next 8 months hospitalized, leaving my mother, who was pregnant with me, and my two siblings, without any means of support.

Marxian perspectives and modern political economy

ConclusionTaken together, the papers on Marx and Marxism appearing in this issue are apartial representation of a complex and growing literature, much of it characterized by critical reevaluations, reflecting a state of ferment not seen in the discipline since the Keynesian revolution. This intellectual ferment, though independent, coincides with the economic reforms occuring presently in the Peoples Republic of China and the Soviet Union.Whether or not either or both of these two developments will ultimately lead to a revolution in Marxian thought is not yet clear. In the meantime, the growing literature on Marx and Marxism, as well as the literature of other current heterodox schools, has been generally ignored by practitioners of “standard” economics. And here again, only time will tell if such neglect is justified.