The new Methodenstreit in the late 20th century and the absence of Economics

NICOLÁS DVOSKIN

Montréal

Workshop; Young Scholars Initiative Event at Charles Gide Workshops; 2019

Charles Gide Association, Université Téluq

This paper is intended as a critical methodological consideration regarding economic history ?as a general category- and history of economic thought ?as a particular one. We provide a succinct presentation of the typical methodologies applied in economic history in order to define the limits these show when trying to approach the specific problems of the history of economic ideas ?defined here as something different from the history of economic thought: the first as a general category, the second one referring strictly to the economists? thought. We make an attempt to bring back to the debates on history of economic ideas some general arguments on intellectual history (Skinner, Koselleck, Palti), on the history of political ideas (Rosanvallon), on the history of social discourse and its hegemonic elements (Angenot, Minardi) and on history as narration (Megill, White, Tozzi). Briefly, we propose a methodological discussion on the history of economic ideas which opens us different possibilities, frequently available in other branches of history but usually absent in economic history and, therefore, in economics as well. This starting point in the history of economic ideas can be continued towards other fields of economics, thus pursuing the incorporation of this discipline into the linguistic turn.