This book investigates the tensions between subjectivism and objectivism in the history of economics. The book looks at the works of Adam Smith, Carl Menger, Leon Walras, William Stanley Jevons, Oskar Morgenstern, Ludwig Mises, Piero Sraffa, and so on. The book highlights the diverse subjective and objective elements of their economic theories and suggests a reframing of methodology to better address the core problems of the theories.

Contributors of the volume are leading members of the Japan Society of History of Economic Thought who have provided a comprehensive overview on the economics methodology and the related problems. Hence, this book will be of an invaluable asset to not only those who are interested in the history of economic thought, but also to scholars who are concerned with the methodological problems of economic science.

Contents

Introduction: Subjectivism and Objectivism in the History of Economic Analysis, Kiichiro Yagi 1. Subjectivity, Objectivity and Biological Interpretation in Smith’s View on the Real Values of Labour, Money and Corn, Tetsuo Taka 2. Individual Rationality and Mechanism in the History of Microeconomic Theory, Masahiro Kawamata 3. Quetlelet’s Influence on W. S. Jevons: From Subjectivism to Objectivism, Inoue Takutoshi 4. Transforming of Rareté? : From Auguste to Léon Walras, Kayoko Misaki 5. Austrian Subjectivism and Hermeneutical Economics, Yuichi Shionoya 6. Carl Menger’s Subjectivism: "Types," Economic Subjects, and Microfoundation, Yukihiro Ikeda 7. Böhm-Bawerk’s Objectivism: Beyond Menger’s Subjectivism, Shigeki Tomo 8. Ludwig von Mises as a Pure Subjectivist, Hiroyuki Okon 9. Uncertainty and Strategic Interdependence in the Interwar Viennese Milieu, Chikako Nakayama 10. Some Evolutionary Interpretations of the Economic Systems of Piero Sraffa and John von Neumann in the Light of Complexity, Yuji Aruka

Author Bio

Kiichiro Yagi, currently the Vice President of Setsunrsity, Osaka, taught theory of political economy and history of economics over two decades in the Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University. His recent publications include Competition, Trust, and Cooperation, Melting Boundaries, and Austrian and German Economic Thought. He was the chief editor of Evolutionary and Institutional Economic Review.

Yukihiro Ikeda is a historian of economic thought. He is currently with the faculty of economics of Keio University, Japan. He has been researching the Austrian School of Economics, with special attention to Carl Menger and Friedrich Hayek, for more than twenty-five years. He is also interested in research of the historical development of German economics and the introduction of German Historical School of Japan.