Pluralism and Complexity

Tolerance and Dialogue in Economics and Other Empirical Sciences
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-1-009-67558-1
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 350 Seiten

Pluralism in economics is the view that modern approaches to studying economic phenomena are too restrictive. It is an important issue within the development of the discipline as many approaches that were once deemed to be outside the mainstream have now become part of the consensus, e.g. game theory, behavioural economics, and information economics. Pluralism and Complexity explores the philosophical background to pluralism and shows how this can be applied to modern economics. It examines key moments like the Keynesian Revolution and the New Classical counter-revolution to show how different 'epistemic visions' arise from fundamentally different ways of handling and simplifying complexity. Examining the history of aggregate economic analysis, this book argues that the propagation of a dogmatic view of science by political and self-interested elites creates a severe deficit of pluralism in macroeconomic research and offers suggestions for reversing this dangerous trend in economics and beyond.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Vercelli, Alessandro

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part I. The Epistemic Foundations of Pluralism: 1. Rationality and Pluralism: Genesis and Coevolution; 2. Science and epistemology from the scientific revolution to the enlightenment; 3. Science and epistemology since Kant; 4. Pluralism and philosophy of science; Part II. Pluralism in Aggregate Economic Analysis: 5. Epistemic visions in early political economy; 6. The marginalist revolution; 7. Visions and disputes at the turn of 19th century; 8. The general equilibrium approach from Walras to Hicks; Part III. Keynesian Revolution and New Classical Counter-revolution: 9. Keynes on probability and complexity; 10. The Keynesian revolution; 11. Macroeconomics after the great stagflation; Part IV. Pluralism and Complexity in Economics: 12. Complexity and economics; 13. Ignorance awareness and economic decisions; 14. Epistemic matrices and evolutionary trajectories; 15. Economy and economics; 16. Whither Pluralism?.

Über Autor(innen)

Vercelli, Alessandro
Alessandro Vercelli is a Life Member of the Clare Hall College, University of Cambridge (UK) and was formally full Professor of Political Economy and Environmental Economics at the University of Siena (Italy). He is the recipient of various research prizes and awards including the Schumpeter-Haberler Distinguished fellow award (2018). His most recent book is Crisis and Sustainability: The Delusion of Free Markets (2019).