A Certain Amount of ‘Recantation'. On the Origins of Frank H. Knight’s Antipositivism

Luca Fiorito ()

Department of Economics University of Siena from Department of Economics, University of Siena

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate in some detail the origins of Knight’s antipositism and to assess the main influences that brought him to a change in methodological perspective after 1921. As importantly, what follows is also an attempt to increase our general understanding of the methodological debates taking place during the early decades of the last century and to shed new light on the inherently pluralistic character of US interwar economics. This paper is organized as follows: the first section outlines Knight’s methodological views as presented in his early works; the second section discusses Knight’s “recantation” and his attack on behavioristic social science; the third section analyze Knight’s discussion of the nature and limitations of scientific economics; the fourth section offers a brief digression on Knight’s relationship with American institutionalism; the fifth section deals with the later developments of Knight’s antipositivism; the final section presents some conclusions

Keywords: Knight, Frank; Economic methodology; Economics and physics; American institutionalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B21 B31 B40 B41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pke
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:usi:wpaper:705

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