Schumpeter and the Idea of Social Science
A Metatheoretical Study

A comprehensive investigation into the work of Schumpeter and his contribution to social sciences.

Yuichi Shionoya (Author)

9780521430340, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 April 1997

372 pages
23.6 x 15.9 x 2.8 cm, 0.66 kg

'… an original interpretation of the birth of theoretical ideas and an extended reconstruction of the Schumpeterian cultural world.' Journal of Economics

This book is a comprehensive investigation of the work of Joseph Alois Schumpeter (1883–1950), one of the great economists of the twentieth century. In this study, Yuichi Shionoya highlights Schumpeter's methodological views and emphasizes his ideal of a universal social science. Taking on board all aspects of his work, he reconstructs a system which encompasses theory (economic statics, economic dynamics, economic sociology) and metatheory (philosophy of science, history and sociology of science). The originality of Schumpeter's work - which the author calls the two-structure approach to the evolution of mind and society - is examined in the light of the intellectual field in Germany and Austria in the early twentieth century. This book is a major contribution to the history of economic thought.

List of figures
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Schumpeter and his surroundings: an overview
3. The scope and methods of Schumpeter's research program
4. The sociology of science and Schumpeter's ideology
5. The economic methodology of instrumentalism
6. Static economics as an exact science
7. The theory of economic development as a midpoint
8. A methodology of economic sociology
9. Economic sociology as an evolutionary science
10. The historical world of economics
11. Value judgements and political economy
12. Conclusion: Schumpeterian synthesis
Notes
List of references
Index.

Subject Areas: Economic theory & philosophy [KCA]