ABSTRACT
In the Tableau Economique we see a small number of parts composing a whole to which each part is necessary, and which itself is necessary to each part. With the ascendancy conferred by such an accomplishment, value theory might almost be allowed to claim that the field of economic phenomena should be defined as the field of rational action. Value theory would be, not the core, but the whole, of economic theory. By a double audacity, value theory does in fact seem to claim that the business scene, the economic aspect of society, can be isolated from all other aspects of society and conduct, and treated as a world in itself and on its own, self-contained and self-determined. The timeless system of pre-reconciled choice, in extreme contrast, is a fusing of present and future which makes possible both choice and knowledge. The chapter shows that rational inter-active conduct is confined to a timeless system.
