Papers > By author > Mouatt Simon

In this paper I posit that, during the latter stages of modernity, critical thinking in economics remains subjugated by narratives of power that serve to perpetuate the use of neoclassical economics and obfuscate some of the unpalatable realities of capitalist mechanics. Marx and Foucault both argued that a key impact of this was the undermining of the educational value of the enlightenment project. If we want to reverse the bad science in economics and restore the confidence of an increasingly distrustful post-truth public, the paper advises that we celebrate and popularize the value of critical thinking. If normative economics is the basis for public policy, for instance, rather than the usual brand of neoclassical pseudo-science peddled by an ideologically rigid economic profession, then the likelihood of meaningful outcomes is enhanced. Economic tests could be constructed that set out the aim and purpose of economic activity and then competing theoretical approaches can battle it out to deliver the policy mix most likely to deliver the desired outcome. The opposite of an optimal self-regulating market.

The second part of the paper considers the possible content of these economic tests and draws on Hegel's master/slave concept to suggest that a sustainable economy is an inclusiveone and it is therefore necessary to take account of the whole of society when formulating economic policy. The paper concludes that Hegel's and Marx's dialectic provide adequate explanation of poignant times of historical transformation, and the trajectory towards human emancipation, although the process of emancipation involves the heart as well as the mind.

References

Foucault, M. (1961 [2006]), The History of Madness. J.Khalfa (ed.)(Routledge, New York)

Hegel, G.W.F. (1977 [1807]), The Phenomenology of SpiritTranslated by A.V. Miller (Oxford University Press, Oxford)

Mandeville, B. 1989 [1714], Fable of the Bees: Or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits (Hackett, Indianapolis)

Marx, K. 2007 [1844], The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Translated by M. Milligan (Dover Publications, United States)

Marx, K. (1976 [1867]), Capital: Volume One (Penguin, St Ives)

McCraty R. (2015), Science of the Heart: Exploring the Role of the Heart in Human Performance. Volume 2 (Boulder Creek, Heartmath Institute)

McGilchrist, I. (2009), The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (Yale University Press, Padstow)

Sharot, T. (2017), The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals about our Power to Change Others (Henry Holt, New York)