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Evolutionary and Neo-Schumpeterian Approaches to Economics pp 65–121Cite as

On the Nature of Economic Evolution: John R. Commons and the Metaphor of Artificial Selection

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Part of the book series: Recent Economic Thought ((RETH,volume 36))

Abstract

In his famous 1898 essay, “Why Is Economics Not An Evolutionary Science?” Thorstein Veblen challenged economists to transform their discipline into an evolutionary science. In order to meet that standard, Veblen insisted, economic theory must be recast as “a theory of a cumulative sequence of economic institutions stated in terms of the process itself” (Veblen, 1919, p. 77). Except for the American institutionalists, most of whom self-consciously embraced Veblen’s “research program,” economists for the most part have ignored Veblen’s plea. Trained in a tradition rooted in the “natural law” perspective of Adam Smith, “mainstream” economists1 have generally conceived of market activity in acultural, ahistorical terms. Indeed, among the major figures in mainstream 20th-century economics, only Joseph Schumpeter has seen a need to incorporate an explicitly evolutionary stance into economic analysis.

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  1. College of Arts and Sciences Economics Department, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, 02881, USA

    Yngve Ramstad

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  1. Uppsala University, Uppsala

    Lars Magnusson

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© 1994 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Ramstad, Y. (1994). On the Nature of Economic Evolution: John R. Commons and the Metaphor of Artificial Selection. In: Magnusson, L. (eds) Evolutionary and Neo-Schumpeterian Approaches to Economics. Recent Economic Thought, vol 36. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35155-1_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-585-35155-1_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-7923-9385-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-585-35155-1

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