Ulysses’ journey home to Ithaca: a new metaphor for understanding the General Theory

Teodoro Dario Togati

Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2020, vol. 44, issue 6, 1395-1414

Abstract: This paper argues that in order to remedy the lack of alternative methods in current macroeconomics it is necessary to clarify the ontology of Keynes’s General Theory. One of the reasons why Keynes lost his generality battle is that he left many gaping holes in the ‘correct’ articulation of his research programme—especially in terms of the specification of hard-core ‘cosmological’ beliefs concerning stability, value and aggregate behaviour—yet to be filled by the post-Keynesian literature. In order to start filling the gaps, this paper proposes a new agenda called ‘The General Theory 4.0’ based on the new ‘Ulysses’ journey’ metaphor, which, it shows, is better than alternative ones, such as Farmer’s ‘windy boat’ and Akerlof and Shiller’s ‘rollercoaster’, for improving understanding of Keynes’s book.

Keywords: General Theory; Implicit theorising; Internal consistency; Research programme; Standard macroeconomics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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