2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
English Historical School and Methodological Controversy
| Project/Area Number |
18530143
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
Economic doctrine/Economic thought
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Hokkaido University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
SASAKI Kensuke Hokkaido University, Graduate School of Economics and Business Administration, Professor (50178646)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
|
| Keywords | methodology of economics / historical school of economics |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
It was W.J. Ashley that recapitulated the Methodenstreit from the standpoint of historical school. The essentials of his recapitulation were the following.
First, the controversy was caused because the economists in both camps had different aptitudes and interests. It is natural that a person should feel that the task towards which he is drawn is the most urgent and beneficent of all tasks.
Second, the plan trying to replace one method with the other was eventually unsuccessful. The extremists in historical economists had hoped that they would substitute historical method for abstract, deductive method. We need to generalize the historical facts in order to get real premises of economic theory. And then we may proceed to deductive inference. But their insistence was criticized even by historical economists admitting the merit of economic theory as well as by theoretic economists.
Third, the controversy, however, influenced conceptions of orthodox economists. That is, the orthodox economists became to share such viewpoints of historical economists as the relativity of doctrine, the unity of social phenomena and the plurality of economic action.
Fourth, the argument enhanced the theoretical economics in Germany and the historical economics in Britain, which were underrated in each country up to that time.
Fifth, historical economists found out their own subject through the controversy. They were investigating economic history both in Germany and Britain. It was on this point that Ashley gave importance in his recapitulation of the Methodenstreit.
|
