Institutional Economics and Dewey's Instrumentalism

Malcolm Rutherford

No 2008, Department Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, University of Victoria

Abstract: Previous discussions concerning the relationship between John Dewey’s pragmatic instrumentalism and institutional economics have focused on Clarence Ayres and on issues of valuation. This paper gives attention to the actual conduct of economic investigations by institutionalists such as Wesley Mitchell, Walton Hamilton, and John R. Commons. It is argued that many aspects of Dewey’s instrumentalism are clearly displayed in the problem centered, investigational, and experimental methods employed by institutionalists, and in their commitment to problem solving and social control. The association of institutionalist methods with Dewey’s instrumentalism implies that many of the standard criticisms of institutionalist methods are misplaced. These criticisms, that institutionalism lacked proper theoretical perspective and produced work that was overly descriptive, have been made predominantly from a logical positivist methodological perspective, and ignore Dewey’s notions of science that informed the institutionalist approach. Appraising institutionalist successes and failures from the point of view of the methodology they actually adopted provides a much more nuanced criticism, one based on the strengths and weaknesses of the underlying instrumentalist methods they employed. In particular, some serious difficulties with the application of Dewey’s experimentalism to social science are located.

Keywords: Institutionalism; Instrumentalism; John Dewey; Wesley Mitchell; Walton Hamilton; J. R. Commons (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2022-07-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hme, nep-hpe and nep-pke
Note: ISSN 1914-2838 JEL Classifications: B15, B25, B31, B40, B41
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