ABSTRACT
NOMINAL FEATURES OF THE ORTHODOX 'PURE THEORY' PROJECT
What, first of all, is the nature of this project? If it is commonplace to find references to something called 'economic theory' or 'pure theory' in modern literature, there is some disagreement about what it comprises. In the assessments of many critics (and some proponents) the project is characterised according to various recurring nominal substantive features. Specifically, economic 'theory' is widely interpreted as a body of substantive thought that, amongst other things, focuses upon
individuals rather than collectivities; upon exchange activities rather than production or distribution; upon optimising (maximising or minimising) behaviour rather than satisficing or habit following; upon conditions of perfect competition rather than oligopoly or monopoly; upon structures facilitating constant (or decreasing) returns to scale rather than increasing returns; upon presumptions of perfect knowledge and foresight or 'rational expectations' rather than uncertainty or ignorance; upon end-states, fixed points, or equilibria, rather than processes in time; upon functions (utility, cost, preference, profit) that are well behaved (where appropriate, convex, differentiable, fixed, well ordered over all the arguments, etc.) rather than otherwise.
