ABSTRACT
There has been a broad and long-standing consensus among economists about the character of the relationship between positive and normative propositions, as well as about the related question of the appropriate scope and limits of economic expertise in society. Joining in this consensus have been many of the pioneers of twentieth-century economic thought including Kenneth J.Arrow, Milton Friedman, F.A.Hayek, Sir John Hicks, Oskar Lange, Gunnar Myrdal, Lionel Robbins, Joan Robinson, Paul Samuelson, Joseph Schumpeter, and Jan Tinbergen. Many others are likely to be found in explicit or implicit agreement, while a survey by Professor T.W.Hutchison suggests that some of the most renowned figures of nineteenth-century economics should probably be included as well.1 The main purpose of this chapter will be to provide enough documentary evidence to show that such a consensus has in fact existed. When we think of how many deep and wide differences there have been over the years in the field that was once called political economy and is now called economic science, differences on questions of method and theory and evidence and recommendations of policy, the existence of such a consensus may seem quite a remarkable fact.
