Keynes’s Philosophy of Practice and Economic Policy

Abstract

Keynes advocated state intervention to improve the working of economies. He also supplied, and invented, economic theories to justify the interventionist measures he advocated. Ever since the publication of the General Theory in 1936, economists have argued about the nature of these theories, and their relationship to Keynes’s (and Keynesian) practice. My distinguished discussant, Samuel Brittan, once wrote: ‘One of the great growth industries of the English-speaking world is the exegesis of the writings of John Maynard Keynes. What exactly did Keynes say? When did he say it? Who were his precursors? What did he really mean? What should he have meant? What would he be saying if he were alive today?’ Mr Brittan added that he enjoyed a good wallow as much as anyone else, which I suppose is one reason why he is here this afternoon.¹