A multilevel approach to economic phenomena: economic sciences according to J. S. Mill, J. N. Keynes and Carl Menger

CRESPO, RICARDO F.

Utrecht

Congreso; Annual Meeting of the History of Economics Society (virtual); 2020

History of Economics Society

SE ACLARA QUE LA PRESENTACIÓN FUE VIRTUAL: https://youtu.be/fKMHikJlywg. A multilevel approach to economic phenomena: economic sciences according to J. S. Mill, J. N. Keynes and Carl MengerThis paper will argue that economic phenomena can be examined from five analytical levels: a statistical descriptive approach, a causal explanatory approach, a teleological explicative approach, a normative approach and, finally, the level of application. The above viewpoints are undertaken by different but related economic sciences, including statistics and economic history, positive economics, normative economics, and the ?art of political economy?. The paper will maintain this thesis picking up elements from John Stuart Mill, John Neville Keynes and Carl Menger?s works. Typically, positive economics has analyzed economic phenomena using the second approach. It has not been concerned with ends, taking them as given. However, various new economic currents have emerged during the last 40 years, and some of these do assign a fundamental role to ends within economics. The paper will argue that the field of positive economics should adapt to deal with the issues that arise from this: it should include the third level of analysis. Keynes, J. N. ([1890] 1955). The Scope and Method of Political economy. Fourth Edition. New York: Kelley and Millman. Menger, C. (1960). ?Toward a Systematic Classification of Economic Sciences?. In: L. Sommer (transl. and ed.) Essays in European Economic Thought. Princeton (NJ): van Nostrand, 1-38. Mill, J.S. ([1844] 2006). Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy (Essay V: ?On the Definition of Political Economy; and on the Method of Investigation Proper to It?). In Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume 4. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.