Economic Theory and the Social Question: Some Dialectics Regarding the Work-Dependency Relationship

Richard E. Wagner

Journal of Contextual Economics (JCE) – Schmollers Jahrbuch, 2019, vol. 139, issue 2–4, 407-420

Abstract: This article uses the 19th century concern with “the social question” to explore how theories shape our insights into our subjects of interest. Contemporary theory mostly construes economics as a science of rational action, which reduces the social question to a matter of material inequality. In contrast, this article treats economics as a form of social theory, with the social question revolving around the material and the moral qualities of societies. While redistribution may be a component of efforts to address the social question, primary focus rests on the institutional arrangements through which human capacities are formed and moral orientations generated.

JEL-codes: B13 B31 B52 D63 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Journal of Contextual Economics (JCE) – Schmollers Jahrbuch is currently edited by Peter J. Boettke, Nils Goldschmidt, Stefan Kolev, Stephen T. Ziliak and Joachim Zweynert

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