Methodological Considerations

Jan Greitens ()
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Jan Greitens: Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität

Chapter Chapter 2 in Currency and Credit Money, 2026, pp 5-15 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract This chapter examines methodological challenges in comparing monetary theories across nearly 600 years of differing economic, institutional, and political contexts. It distinguishes between cumulative, substitutive, and circular progress in economics, emphasizing the relevance of recurring monetary debates. This chapter discusses conceptual history and the need to interpret historical texts within their original linguistic and institutional frameworks. It contrasts rational and historical reconstruction and proposes a combined approach to avoid both relativism and anachronism. Traditional schools of thought are critically assessed as inadequate for classifying monetary theories. This chapter concludes by advocating “serial contextualism,” which integrates historical context with diachronic comparison to trace evolving monetary ideas across time.

Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:spshcp:978-3-032-24113-9_2

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-032-24113-9_2

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