Abstract
The title of this chapter is intended to suggest that the long history of our discipline, whatever we choose to tell others, has historically been something different from an efficient linear search for scientific ‘cause and effect’ first principles. The body of economic knowledge as we know it, I propose, should be imagined as a tapestry, or, better yet, considering our propensity for wiping our feet on the past, as an oriental rug. It is a rug woven by different generations of thinkers and doers, each working within the framework of the facts and ideas of his or her time, and each hoping that from observation and/or excogitation some immutables could be distilled and put to permanent use.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
BUCHANAN, JAMES (1980) Review of G. L. S. Shackle’s Imagination and the Nature of Choice, in Austrian Economic Newsletter, no. 3 (Summer), pp. 10–11.
COSSA, LUIGI (1893) Guide to the Study of Political Economy, revised by the author and translated from the Italian by Louis Dyer (London and New York: Macmillan, 1876, 1892, 1893 ).
EARL, PETER E. (1983) The Economic Imagination: Towards a Behavioural Analysis of Choice (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe).
ELSTER, JON (1979) Ulysses and the Sirens: Studies in Rationality and Irrationality (Cambridge, New York, etc.: Cambridge University Press).
HOLMES, OLIVER WENDALL, Jr (1881) The Common Law ( Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963 ).
HOBBES, THOMAS (1651) The Leviathan.
KNIGHT, FRANK HYNEMAN (1921) Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit ( London: London School of Economics, 1957 ).
KUZNETS, SIMON (1948) ‘National Income: A New Version’, being a review article on US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Office of Business Economics, National Income and Product Statistics of the United States, 1929–46, a supplement to the Survey of Current Business (Washington, D.C., 1947), Restat., 30 pp. 151–79.
MILL, JAMES, Human Mind as cited in the Oxford English Dictionary.
MORGENSTERN, OSKAR (1972) ‘Thirteen Points in Contemporary Economic Theory: An Interpretation’, Journal of Economic Literature, 10, pp. 1163–89.
SCHUMPETER, JOSEPH (1914) Economic Doctrine and Method: An Historical Sketch, translated by R. Axis (London: Allen & Unwin, 1954 ).
SCHUMPETER, JOSEPH (1954) History of Economic Analysis ( New York: Oxford University Press).
SHACKLE, G. L. S. (1979) Imagination and the Nature of Choice ( Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press).
WEBSTER, CHARLES (1975) The Great Instauration: Science, Medicine, and Reform, 1626–1660 ( New York: Holmes & Meier ).
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1990 Stephen F. Frowen
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Perlman, M. (1990). The Fabric of Economics and the Golden Threads of G. L. S. Shackle. In: Frowen, S.F. (eds) Unknowledge and Choice in Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08097-7_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-08097-7_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-08099-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-08097-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)