ABSTRACT
This selection is an excerpt from Tool's book, The Discretionary Economy. It is a comprehensive statement of instrumental value theory as applied by Institutional economists. Institutional economics is explicitly value laden, in contrast to Neoclassical orthodoxy which claims to be value free. Tool explains the value principle underlying Institutional inquiry and explores several related corollaries that Institutionalists see as necessary conditions for progress and problem solving.
It is important to note that Institutionalists totally reject the positive/normative dualism. Institutionalists are not arguing that economics should be a normative science rather than a positive science; they are arguing that all science is a value-laden process.
