Problems of Modern Technology

This essay identifies a contradiction between the flourishing interest in the environmental economics of the classical period and a lack of critical parsing of the works of its leading representatives. Its focus is the work of Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus. It offers a critical analysis of their contribution to environmental thought and surveys the work of their contemporary devotees. It scrutinizes Smith's contribution to what Karl Polanyi termed the "economistic fallacy," as well as his defenses of class hierarchy, the "growth imperative" and consumerism. It subjects to critical appraisal Malthus's enthusiasm for private property and the market system, and his opposition to market regulation. While Malthus's principal attraction to ecological economists lies in his having allegedly broadened the scope of economics, and in his narrative of scarcity, this article shows that he, in fact, narrowed the scope of the discipline and conceptualized scarcity in a reified and pseudo-scientific way.     

The physiocrats' concept of labour: A difficulty in Marx's interpretation

Abstract

This article explains the difference between the concept of labour developed by the Physiocrats and Marx. We show that Marx's interpretation based on Turgot is questionable. Whereas Marx bases his ideas on a Lockian definition of labour which puts labour at the origin of value, Quesnay and his disciples develop a mechanistic definition of labour established on Neo-Cartesian foundations. This particular concept of labour then combines with a bio-physical definition of production. The theory of the net product is therefore re-interpreted.     

NONLINEAR BUSINESS CYCLE MODELLING

Abstract. Literature which employs nonlinearities to explain economic fluctuations, commonly called business cycles, is surveyed. Relaxation of the linearity assumption significantly increases the range of possible dynamic solution paths and introduces the possibility that business cycles are endogenously determined. The dominant post-war modelling strategy has been the Frisch (1933) (and Slutsky, 1937) inspired one of developing essentially (log) linear economic models which produce damped cycles (or monotonic damping) to propagate the energy provided by repeated random (or autocorrelated) shocks. The cycle is exogenously driven, since it would die out in the absence of shocks. Deterministic (nonstochastic) nonlinear models can produce a wide range of endogenous fluctuations, including: stable limit cycles; growth cycles; and chaotic output, which have the appearance of random fluctuations. Further, the same model can produce qualitatively different outputs according to starting and parameter values. If the possibility of shocks to parameters is admitted, then behaviour can change abruptly following shocks. Evidence on the existence of nonlinearities and chaos in macroeconomic time series is assessed and alternative approaches to modelling dynamic economic development, related to the work of Keynes, Marx, Schumpeter and Shackle, are discussed. Their ideas have not proved readily amenable to mathematical modelling, but attempts to encapsulate some of them are reviewed.     

The outline on Ecological Marxism Economics

PART 1When the 20th century went to its end, BritishBroadcasting Company held a global appraisal activ-ity to all thinkers and Marx was appraised as “the No.1 thinker of the thousand years”. Recently, the fourthstation of BBC held again an appraisal activity to thegreatest philosophers both ancient and contemporary,and Marx was again named the top 1 among globalten great philosophers. The two results tell us clearlythat Marx is living in our real world and must livecontinuously in the f…     

马克思经济危机理论对社会主义市场经济建设的启示

马克思主义传统理论认为,经济危机根源于资本主义基本矛盾,是资本主义特有的经济现象。事实上经济危机的爆发是市场经济的正常现象,在我国社会主义市场经济运行过程中,同样具备了经济危机发生的基本条件和要素。所以,必须从规范市场、平衡供求、调整产业结构、改革金融体制、控制两极分化等多方面把握好宏观调控,在市场经济条件下及时转变政府职能,从而避免经济危机发生。     

马克思法的形而上学批判探析

近代法哲学从本质上来说是法的形而上学。马克思的法哲学从《黑格尔法哲学批判》开始,始终着力于对近代法的形而上学的批判。在颠覆近代法的形而上学的过程中,建构了在“感性活动”原则基础上社会存在理论。研究马克思法哲学批判理论从理论和实践上都具有重大意义。     

马克思的分工理论与中国当前的社会分工

在由农业社会向工业社会的转型中,中国的社会分工发生了根本性变化。分工在推动生产力快速发展、创造大量物质财富的同时,也在慢慢变革着生产关系,产生了许多深层次问题。马克思的分工理论唯物辩证地阐述了分工的产生、运动及消灭的运动规律,为我们认识、分析及解决当前的社会分工问题提供了科学的理论依据和行动指南。     

马克思价值转形焦点问题研究

转形问题的争论不仅关系到马克思对这一问题的论证方法能否成立,而且关系到马克思《资本论》第一卷与第三卷之间逻辑上能否一致,以及马克思整个经济理论体系能否成立。首先,对西方经济学家争论的各种问题进行归纳概括,提出了十大焦点问题,这些问题基本上覆盖了西方经济学家对马克思价值转形问题争论的全部内容;其次,建立大量的数学模型,对马克思转形理论进行了定量分析,为进一步研究马克思经济学提供一种新的研究思路;最后,按照马克思的逻辑方法,对西方经济学家争论的焦点问题逐一进行解答,有力驳斥了西方反马克思主义者的观点。在对所争论问题的解答过程中,实际上提出了一种解决马克思价值转形问题的新方法。     

Situational logic in social science inquiry: From economics to criminology

Karl R. Popper proposed that the method of explanation in economics, or situational logic, should become the general model for analyses across the social sciences. This article makes good Popper's proposal by extending situational logic to a social problem outside the traditional scope of economics: crime. Specifically, the discussion reviews models developed by economist Gary S. Becker and criminologist Ronald V. Clarke. Becker's ‘economic approach’ to crime incorporates essential features of situational logic. Clarke's ‘situational crime prevention’ offers an even better demonstration; it explicitly incorporates the ideas of piecemeal social engineering and unintended social repercussions. Popper took situational logic from Menger and the Austrians, making this emerging area of criminology an extension of Austrian economics.

Banks as Continuous Reinvention

Of the several debates that revolve around the work of the economic historian and political economist Karl Polanyi, one that continues to exercise minds concerns his analysis of, and political attitudes toward, post-war capitalism and the welfare state. Simplified a little, it is a debate with two sides. To borrow Iván Szelényi's terms, one side constructs a ‘hard’ Karl Polanyi, the other a ‘soft’ one. The former advocated a socialist mixed economy dominated by redistributive mechanisms. He was a radical socialist for whom the market should never be the dominant mechanism of economic coordination. His ‘soft’ alter ego insisted that the market system remain essentially intact but be complemented by redistributive mechanisms. The ‘double movement’ – the central thesis of his ‘Great Transformation’ – acts, in this reading, as a self-correcting mechanism that moderates the excesses of market fundamentalism; its author was positioned within the social-democratic mainstream for which the only realistic desirable goal is a regulated form of capitalism. In terms of textual evidence there is much to be said for both interpretations. In this article I suggest a different approach, one that focuses upon the meaning of Polanyi's concepts in relation to their socio-political and intellectual environment.