“Mr Keynes and the ‘Classics’” Again: A Methodological Enquiry

Keynes is usually interpreted as proposing, or intending to propose an original theory of employment and income. However, this paper shows that Keynes was actually proposing more than a theoretical alternative. He saw himself breaking away from the ‘Classics’ at the connected levels of theory and methodology. This paper thus argues that modern economists going back to the old story of the relation between Mr. Keynes and the ‘Classics’ can learn something about several controversial issues in macroeconomics and methodology like for instance the role of experiments and formal arguments in economics.The paper is the development of a chapter in my Ph.D. thesis and has greatly benefited from discussion with Mark Blaug, Anna Carabelli, Bill Gerrard, Marc Lavoie, Tony Lawson, Roy Rotheim, and especially Geoff Harcourt and Malcolm Sawyer. Errors and omissions are, of course, solely my responsibility. A first draft of the paper was presented at the UK Autumn HET Conference (Glasgow Caledonian University, September 1999) and the AISPE Conference (University of Florence, September 1999). Finally, the paper was completed when I was visiting Research Professor at the Economics Department and C-FEPS, University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC), Kansas City (USA) and Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall College and CCEPP, University of Cambridge, Cambridge (UK). I would like to express appreciation to members of those institutions for providing a stimulating and pleasant working environment.