Two rhetorical strategies of laissez-faire
Journal of Economic Methodology 11 (3):341-357 (2004)
| Abstract | To understand the work of economic theorists it is often helpful to situate it in the context of the rhetorical strategy they were pursuing. Two ontologically distinct rhetorical strategies of laissez-faire may be distinguished by the way they articulate the individual interest with the general interest. A reductionist approach, exemplified by Friedman and Lucas, suggests that the properties and behaviour of an entity can be understood in terms of the properties and behaviour of the constituent lower-level components, taken in isolation. The contrary – holistic – stance, viewing the qualities of phenomena as products of the inter-relations between their component parts, is characteristic of Smith and Hayek. While the reductionist approach naturally issues in a laissez- faire policy prescription, the holistic account is more problematic. Reconciling a holistic ontology with a reductionist policy prescription requires the intercalation of a black box, such as an evolutionary process or the invisible hand of a deity. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,664 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesTyler Cowen (1989). Why Keynesianism Triumphed or, Could so Many Keynesians Have Been Wrong? Critical Review 3 (3-4):518-530.
Daniel B. Klein (1992). Go Ahead and Let Him Try: A Plea for Egonomic Laissez-Faire. Inquiry 35 (1):3 – 20.
Barry Eichengreen (2000). The Crisis of (Confidence in) Global Capitalism. Critical Review 14 (1):69-85.
Andy Denis (2002). Was Hayek a Panglossian Evolutionary Theorist? A Reply to Whitman. Constitutional Political Economy 13 (3):275-285.
Garett Jones (2000). “The Free Market” and the Asian Crisis. Critical Review 14 (1):47-56.
Kevin Dowd (2000). Are Free Markets the Cause of Financial Instability? Critical Review 14 (1):57-67.
Waheed Hussain (2006). Democratic Capitalism and Respect for the Value of Freedom. International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics 2 (s 3-4):280-293.
Jeffrey Friedman (1992). After Libertarianism: Rejoinder to Narveson, McCloskey, Flew, and Machan. Critical Review 6 (1):113-152.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads3 ( #201,781 of 549,006 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,261 of 549,006 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
