Formal Economy, Substantive Economy, and Economism: A Critical Interpretation of Karl Polanyi’s Distinction

Polanyi analyzes the historical deployment of a “formal” economic science starting from the “market-scarcity-instrumental rationality triptych.” This triptych, and the knowledge associated with it, is shown to be more than merely a “substantial” economic science’s interest in the triptych “need-natu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophy of the social sciences 2016-09, Vol.46 (5), p.473-497
Main Authors: Sobel, Richard, Postel, Nicolas
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Polanyi analyzes the historical deployment of a “formal” economic science starting from the “market-scarcity-instrumental rationality triptych.” This triptych, and the knowledge associated with it, is shown to be more than merely a “substantial” economic science’s interest in the triptych “need-nature-institution.” While we must agree with Polanyi that economism is ill-suited to the first triptych, we hesitate to accept his suggested alternative, a heterogeneous mixture of naturalism and institutionalism, essentialism and historicism.
ISSN:0048-3931
1552-7441
DOI:10.1177/0048393116631299