Economics in the International Encyclopaedia of Unified Science

Journal title HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY
Author/s Giandomenica Becchio
Publishing Year 2013 Issue 2013/2
Language English Pages 9 P. 145-153 File size 42 KB
DOI 10.3280/SPE2013-002007
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The International Encyclopaedia of Unified Science, 1938-1969 (promoted, above all, by Otto Neurath in Vienna and Charles Morris in the United States) was based on the feasibility of building a "unified science" and it was carried on through the publication of a special "encyclopaedia" to show the meaning of this philosophical project. The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct, mainly from a historical point of view, the development of economic theory within this project: from the role of economics inside the Vienna Circle in the 1930s (more specifically in Neurath’s perspective) to the meaning of economics in Tintner’s volume, published in 1968. The role of economics inside the International Encyclopaedia is a part of the story of "the building of the economic "mainstream" (a quantitative and formalist approach to economic issues) during the 1950s and the 1960s in the USA.

Keywords: Unified science, economics, philosophy, Neurath, Tintner

Jel codes: A11, A12, B25, B40

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Giandomenica Becchio, Economics in the International Encyclopaedia of Unified Science in "HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY" 2/2013, pp 145-153, DOI: 10.3280/SPE2013-002007