General Theory-Special Case Relationships: Keynes and Neoclassicism

Rod O’Donnell

Review of Political Economy, 2022, vol. 34, issue 4, 709-734

Abstract: In economic theory, methodology and philosophy, general theory-special case relationships are rarely investigated. In 1936, Keynes challenged orthodoxy with the claim that his general theory embraced orthodoxy as a special case. Orthodoxy counter-claimed that its theory was the only general theory within which Keynes’s could only be a special case. This paper explores the important issues behind the dispute in three parts. Part A examines the conceptual and methodological foundations of the opposing claims, finding that each side deploys a different model of these relationships. Part B explores all of Keynes’s theoretical works and finds that his 1936 model underpins all his theoretical work in philosophy and economics. Part C concludes with methodological reflections on the conceptual foundations of the dispute.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1080/09538259.2021.1964768

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