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A Reconciliation of the Liberal and Communitarian Debate in the Light of the Methodenstreit

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The Invisible Hand and the Common Good

Part of the book series: Studies in Economic Ethics and Philosophy ((SEEP))

Abstract

This paper attempts to reconcile the current controversy between liberalism and communitarianism in moral and political philosophy, referring to the lessons of the Methodenstreit (controversy on method) between theoretical and historical economists at the end of the 19th century in Austria and Germany. The Methodenstreit was a confrontation between Carl Menger and Gustav von Schmoller, or between the Austrian School of Economics and the German Historical School of Economics; it was alleged as a controversy about the relative superiority of a theoretical-deductive individualistic approach versus an historical-inductive-holistic approach.

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© 2004 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Shionoya, Y. (2004). A Reconciliation of the Liberal and Communitarian Debate in the Light of the Methodenstreit. In: Hodgson, B. (eds) The Invisible Hand and the Common Good. Studies in Economic Ethics and Philosophy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-10347-0_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-10347-0_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-06109-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-10347-0

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