Terence Hutchison and Frank Knight: a reappraisal of their 1940-1941 exchange

John Hart

Journal of Economic Methodology, 2010, vol. 17, issue 4, 359-373

Abstract: The person arguably most responsible for the view of Hutchison as the positivist who introduced positivism into economics was Frank Knight. I argue that Knight in 1940 failed to demonstrate that Hutchison was a positivist, at least in the narrow logical positivist sense of the term. By questioning Knight's charge, I aim to challenge the conventional wisdom that identifies 'Hutchison' with 'positivism'. The paper is then a first step in the argument that positivism, even in 1938, played only an inessential role in a consistent methodological position that Hutchison developed alongside his work in the history of economic thought.

Keywords: Hutchison; Knight; positivism; uncertainty; history; inductivism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1080/1350178X.2010.525247

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