The Uses of Authority in EconomicsShared Intellectual Frameworks as the Foundation of Personal Persuasion

Why do economists believe what they believe? Why do they not all believe the same things? Our answer to these questions revolves around the nature, variety, and uses of authority in economics. Our data are the various frameworks that economists, knowingly and unknowingly, employ to formulate their questions and organize their intellectual endeavors. We call these devices patristic traditions, or cultural and intellectual frameworks, or governing legacies, or several other phrases. They all connote authority systems, traceable to specific intellectual or cultural precursors, or authorities. Our central proposition is that the specific set of governing legacies that each individual economist possesses effectively guides his or her thinking. By recognizing these authorities we can more effectively understand others' minds, understand our own, and increase our ability to persuade. So our propositions concern the uses of authorities—how economists of the past have used them and how we ourselves use them, but especially how we might use them to productive ends.