Book Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Notes on contributors -- 1 Introduction -- WHAT IS HERMENEUTICS? -- ALTERNATIVE VIEWS OF ECONOMICS FROM A PARTICULAR PHILOSOPHICAL STANDPOINT -- ALTERNATIVE VIEWS OF HERMENEUTICS FROM A PARTICULAR ECONOMIC STANDPOINT -- HERMENEUTICAL REASON: APPLICATIONS IN MACRO, MICRO, AND PUBLIC POLICY -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- Part I What is hermeneutics? -- 2 Towards the native's point of view -- PRELUDE -- IS THERE A PROBLEM? -- AMPLIFICATION: RUMBLINGS IN THE MARGIN AND OUTSIDE OF ECONOMICS -- A ROUNDABOUT WAY OF GETTING TO THE PROBLEM -- A note of clarification -- THREE WAYS OF DEALING WITH A PROBLEM4 -- FOUR SUCH STRATEGIES FOR SUBSUMING PROBLEMS -- ECONOMICS ACCORDING TO PICTURE I -- IRONY IN PICTURE I -- PICTURE II FOR ECONOMIC DISCOURSE -- THE NATIVE'S POINT OF VIEW -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 3 Getting beyond objectivism -- INTRODUCTION -- HERMENEUTICS -- GADAMER'S CRITIQUE OF OBJECTIVISM -- SUBJECTIVISM AND METHODOLOGICAL INDIVIDUALISM -- RICOEUR'S CRITIQUE OF SUBJECTIVISM -- EXPLANATION/UNDERSTANDING -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- Part III Alternative views of economics from a particular philosophical standpoint: hermeneutics 'appropriated' by neoclassicism, institutionalism, critical theory, and Austrian economics ... -- 4 Storytelling in economics1 -- NOTE -- REFERENCES -- 5 The philosophical bases of institutionalist economics -- THE DURKHEIM/MAUSS/DOUGLAS THESIS -- THE CARTESIAN TRADITION AND NEOCLASSICAL ECONOMIC THEORY -- PRAGMATISM AND PEIRCE -- JOHN DEWEY -- THE PRAGAMATIC TRADITION AND INSTITUTIONALIST ECONOMIC THEORY -- THORSTEIN VEBLEN -- JOHN R.COMMONS -- POST-1930s INSTITUTIONALISM -- REVOLUTIONS IN SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY -- THE MODERN REVIVAL OF A PRAGMATIST INSTITUTIONALIST ECONOMICS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- NOTES.

REFERENCES -- 6 The scope and goals of economic science -- THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF ECONOMIC KNOWLEDGE -- MAINSTREAM ECONOMICS AND MODERN CAPITALIST SOCIETY -- Keynesian economics and the 'scientization of politics' -- Neoclassical economics and distorted communication -- EXPANDING THE DOMAIN OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTION -- TOWARD A CRITICAL ECONOMIC SCIENCE -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 7 Austrian economics -- INTRODUCTION -- WHY HERMENEUTICS? -- WHAT IS HERMENEUTICS? -- INSTITUTIONS AND THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL -- HERMENEUTICAL ALLIES OF THE AUSTRIANS -- REFERENCES -- Part III Alternative views of hermeneutics from a particular economic standpoint: the controversy in the Austrian school -- 8 Practical syllogism, entrepreneurship and the invisible hand -- SYNOPSIS OF THE ARGUMENT -- THE CHALLENGE OF VERSTEHEN -- PRACTICAL SYLLOGISM AND ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTION -- UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES AND THE INVISIBLE HAND -- EXPLANATION, UNDERSTANDING, AND THE INVISIBLE HAND -- CONCLUSION -- ACNOWLEDGEMENTS -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 9 What is a price? Explanation and understanding -- INTRODUCTION -- WHAT IS A TEXT? EXPLANATION AND UNDERSTANDING -- EXPLANATION WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING: THE MEANING OF PRICE IN FORMAL ECONOMIC ANALYSIS -- EXPLANATION WITH UNDERSTANDING: THE MEANING OF PRICE IN INTERPRETIVE ECONOMIC ANALYSIS -- CONCLUSION: COMPLETING THE INTERPRETIVE ARC -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 10 The economics of rationality and the rationality of economics -- INTRODUCTION -- Description of RE theory -- Psychological versus philosophical critiques of RE -- EPISTEMIC ANALYSIS OF RE -- The problem of epistemic regress -- THE METHOD OF FOUNDATIONALISM -- Problems with foundationalism -- Foundationalism and economic methodology -- Problems with positivism -- THE COHERENCE STRATEGY -- Coherence theory and rational economics -- Problems with coherence theories.

The lack of empirical inputs -- Inter-system indeterminacy -- Ambiguous coherence criteria -- Vicious circularity -- A problematic view of truth -- A HERMENEUTICAL APPROACH TO RATIONALITY AND JUSTIFICATION -- Language as a mediator -- Addressing the problem of relativism -- PHILOSOPHICAL HERMENEUTICS AND THE INTERPRETIVE APPROACH -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- Part IV Hermeneutical reason: applications in macro, micro, and public policy -- 11 On the microfoundations of money -- PHILOSOPHIC BACKGROUND -- THE USES AND PURPOSES OF 'GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM' -- TOOLS AND METHODS -- MONEY AND MARKETS -- A NON-WALRASIAN PROCESS AND MENGER'S THEORY OF MARKETABILITY -- FURTHER DEVELOPMENTS OF MONEY AND MARKETS: THE SEPARATION OF THE UNIT OF ACCOUNT AND MEDIA OF EXCHANGE -- SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING REMARKS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 12 Self-interpretation, attention, and language -- SELF-INTERPRETING UTILITY FUNCTIONS -- SOCIAL THEORY AS PRACTICE -- WHAT IS A GOOD? -- ATTENTION AND LANGUAGE -- ATTENTION AND ECONOMICS -- IMPLICATIONS FOR ECONOMIC ANALYSIS -- HERMENEUTICAL EXPECTATIONS -- CONCLUSION -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 13 What a non-Paretian welfare economics would have to look like -- INTRODUCTION -- HOW DO NON-PARETIAN APPROACHES DIFFER? -- A central problem -- SIDESTEPPING THE DILEMMA WITH ECONOMIC HISTORY -- Developing a standard -- Aggregation -- WHAT AN ACTUAL STANDARD MIGHT LOOK LIKE -- Discovery and innovation -- Complexity -- Provision of consumer goods -- SECOND-BEST CONSIDERATIONS -- A NON-FOUNDATIONALIST APPROACH -- CONCLUDING COMMENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- 14 The hermeneutical view of freedom -- WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF SIGNIFICANCE -- THE 'IS' WITHIN THE 'OUGHT' -- REASON, SPEECH AND PRICES -- THE SATISFACTION OF GENERATED WANTS -- PROCESS AND ORDER.

PUBLIC GOODS AND THE HYPOSTATIZATION OF PREFERENCES -- FINITUDE AND ECONOMIC POLICY: SOME PARTICULARS -- Advertising -- Property rights -- CONCLUSION: COMPETITION AND LIBERTY -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- Index.