A natureza da crítica em economia: o caso da economia institucional

Abstract

Science has the social status of being the vehicle of true discourses about reality. In social science, truth can be hidden by false speeches that are accepted as objective descriptions of social reality. Perhaps economics is the social science in which this divorce from reality is most visible. Accusations about the unreality of mainstream economics’ assumptions have been made since the marginal revolution of the late nineteenth century and the consolidation of the neoclassical research program throughout the twentieth century.  The aim of this article is to consider the debates on institutional economics at the end of nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century in the United States. We intend to show how mainstream economics uses analysis not to build a more objective view of economic reality, but solely to enlarge the set of problems considered by its theories.