EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

On Keynes’s Method in Economic Theory

Geoffrey Harcourt

Chapter 8 in The Notion of Equilibrium in the Keynesian Theory, 1992, pp 99-105 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter discusses Keynes’s methods1 starting with his own legacy when he decided to become an economist in the early part of this century. Keynes himself, and others on his behalf, notably Joan Robinson, claim that he tried to change our method of doing economics, as well as our way of seeing how economies work. As for the latter aspect, James Meade put it most succinctly when he described Keynes’s change of our way of looking at economics as like a dog called ‘savings’ which wagged its tail called ‘investment’, into a model where a dog called ‘investment’ wagged its tail labelled ‘savings’. Instead, the case for a change in method has, I fear, been aborted in recent years, not only by those who oppose all things Keynesian, but also by some Keynesians themselves — especially those who were brought up on ‘Keynesian economics’, in quotes, with little or no contact with The General Theory and its related writings, as opposed to the ‘economics of Keynes’ (a distinction which Axel Leijonhufvud (1968) has forcefully brought to our attention). To make this case we have to remind ourselves of two important facts. First, Keynes came to economics through his own distinctive kind of philosophy and concern with certain philosophical issues; and second, his earliest mentor in economics, and one by whose methods he was greatly influenced, was Alfred Marshall.

Keywords: Keynesian Economic; Reasonable Behaviour; Early Mentor; Classical Political Economist; Marxian Economic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1992
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-22086-1_8

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781349220861

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-22086-1_8

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().

 
Page updated 2025-06-08
Handle: RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-22086-1_8