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The humanities are scientific: a reply to the defenses of economic neo-institutionalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2015

DEIRDRE NANSEN McCLOSKEY
DEIRDRE NANSEN McCLOSKEY*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, History, English, and Communications, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
*
*Email: deirdre2@uic.edu
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Abstract

I reply to amiable criticisms by Greif, Mokyr, Langlois, Lawson, and Tabellini of my own criticism of neo-institutionalism. They say that ‘culture’ is included in neo-institutionalism – which is mistaken on any serious definition of culture, such as those involving ethics, rhetoric, ideology, and ideas. They also say that neo-institutionalism has advanced beyond Max U and Samuelsonian economics. That's also mistaken. They do not attend to the humanities, which as ‘humanomics’ can indeed acknowledge ‘culture’ and non-Max U. Their particular historical examples show the opposite of what they think is shown. Ideas, rhetoric, ethics changed, and had to change, before institutions mattered.

Type
Comment
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , March 2016 , pp. 63 - 78
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2015 

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