THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMICS
| Published date | 01 June 1974 |
| Date | 01 June 1974 |
| Author | D. P. O'Brien |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1974.tb00190.x |
Scottish Journal of Political Economy
Vol. XXI. No.
2,
June 1974
REVIEW SECTION
THE
DEVELOPMENT
OF
ECONOMICS
D.
P.
O'BRIBN
G.
L.
S.
SHACKLE,
Episiemics
&
Eco-
nomics,
A
Critique of Economic
Doc
trines
(London, Cambridge University
Press, 1972) pp. Viii+482, €7.80.
ALLAN G. GRUCHY,
Contemporary
Economic Thoughi, the Contribution
of
Neo-Institutional Economics
(London,
Macmillan, 1973)
pp.
ix
+
360, €7.00.
ASSAR LINDBECK,
The Political Eco-
nomy
of
rhe
New
Lefi, an Ouisidefs View
(London, Harper and low, 1972)
pp.
xxi
+loo.
f1.40.
MAURICE DOBB,
Theories of Value
and Disiribuiion since Adam Smith, Ideo-
logy
and Economic Theory
(London,
Cambridge University
Press,
1973) pp.
295, €3.60.
R. D. COLLISON BLACK, A. W.
COATS, and CRAUFURDD.
W.
GOOD-
WIN, (editors),
The Marginal Revolution
in
Economics, Interpretation and Evalu-
ation
CDurham, North Carolina, Duke
University
Press,
1973)
pp.
viii
+
367, $7.50.
R. D. COLLISON BLACK and ROSA-
MOND KONEKAMP,
Papers and
Correspondence of William Stanley
Jevons,
Vol.
I,
Biography
grid
personal
journal,
edited
by
R.
D.
Collison Black
and Rosamond K6nekamp; Vol.
11,
Correspondence
1850-1
862, edited by R.
D. Collison Black (London, Macmillan,
for the Royal Economic Society, 1972)
pp.
xv+243; xviii+426; $7 and
210.
HORST CLAUS RECKTBNWALD,
Political Economy,
a
Hisiorical Perspec-
tive
(London, Collier-Macmillan, 1973)
pp.
xx+444, f1.50 paperback.
RONALD L. MEEK (editor and transla-
tor),
Turgor
on
Progress, Sociology and
Economics
(London, Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1973) pp. 186, f3.60.
This
apparently heterogeneous collec-
tion of volumes contains material which
is of considerable interest to those
con-
cerned with
the
way
in
which economics
has developed and is developing
as
a
sub-
ject.
It is
also
of
great interest as
pro-
viding a clear indication
of
the extent
of
unease and even dissent about
the
path
which economics is following. Moreover
it contains clear indications that econo-
mics is not simply split between Marxists
and Neo-Classicists, the one
party
fed
on
Kapital
and the other on Wahas'
Ele-
ments
(or
Samuelsmn's
Foundations)
as
some
of
the
Marxists would have
us
be-
lieve. In particular we have Professor
Shackle,
a
life-long critic
of
orthodox
economics, gently and
covrteollsly
pro-
viding the reader with a devastating
critique of
our
whole subject. Criticism
of
another
sort
is repmsentcd by the
volume on
American
Institutionalism;
while criticism
of
a
Marxist kind is
to
ba
found, some
in
the
volume
by Dobb and
some
reviewed in the brilliant monograph
by Lindbeck dealing with the
so-called
'
New
'
Left
These discussions are com-
plemented by four works in what we think
of
as the main stream of
history
of emno-
mic thought discussion
and
research; a
volume
full
of
interest and insight on the
marginal revolution, the
first
two
volumes
of
the new and superb edition of Jevons'
papers
which is emaging from R. D. C.
Black's monumental
labours,
a
most in-
teresting translation and edition
of
Tur-
got from Professor R.
L.
Meek, and
a
very useful compilation
of
(largely bio-
graphical) essays on
great
emnomists in
the
volume edited by Recktenwald.
The Shackle volume, which
is
far from
easy reading,
is
a
truly radical book.
For
it
offen
a
critique
of
economics which
strikes not
at
the super-structure but at the
foundations.
It
is
the product
of
h-
mense reading, not only
in
economics but
in mathematics and even the natural
sciences; yet this
is
never paraded or
rammed down the reader's throat. Instead
the book gently builds on
this
foundation
of
a great knowledge of the subject
to
take
the subject itself apart.
So
&dVely
187
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