Analysis and Vision in Economic Discourse

Peter Boettke

Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 1992, vol. 14, issue 1, 84-95

Abstract: Robert Heilbroner (1990) challenges us to re-examine our preconceptions about the development of economic analysis in the twentieth century. John Maynard Keynes (1951, p. 141) once said, in a discussion concerning Alfred Marshall, that the “master economist…must study the present in light of the past for the purposes of the future,” and in this regard Heilbroner's essay is the work of a historian of economics who commands our attention and respect. The purpose of his essay “is to inquire into the successes and failures of economic thought in anticipating the march of actual events” (Heilbroner 1990, p. 1097). The failures, Heilbroner points out, considerably outweigh the successes. But, he conjectures, even in those cases of success, the success is not due to superior analysis. Rather, “the success of the farsighted seem accounted for more by their prescient ‘visions’ than by their superior analyses” (ibid., p. 1098).

Date: 1992
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