Abstract

FRAGIO, Alberto. The Crisis of the Historical Style of Economic Reasoning: Joseph A. Schumpeter, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, and Paul A. Samuelson. Hist. graf [online]. 2020, n.55, pp.131-164.  Epub Sep 07, 2020. ISSN 1405-0927.  https://doi.org/10.48102/hyg.vi55.302.

In this article, I pay attention to the decline of the historical style of economic reasoning in relation to Joseph A. Schumpeter, Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and Paul A. Samuelson. I will argue two basic points. The first one states that the Schumpeterian theory of business cycles is a response to the understanding of economic crises in historical perspective and, consequently, it can be conceived as an instance of the historical style of economic reasoning. The second point argues that the decline of this historical style of economic reasoning was associated with the hegemony of Keynesianism, to the detrimentof Schumpter's work. To the extent that the Schumpeterian theory of business cycles and the innovative entrepreneur required history as the ultimate place of foundation, their discredit also involved the crisis of the historical style of economic reasoning. The decline of the historical style showed the conflict among different economic rationalities during the second half of the Twentieth Century, and questioned the epistemological legitimacy of the economic history with respect to synchronic analysis.

Keywords : Historical Epistemology of Economics; Styles of Economic Reasoning; Economic History; Crisis; Business Cycle.