ABSTRACT
When Daly read Thomas Kuhn’s book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) he realized that what had begun for him as a simple query about economic growth, had become a call for a paradigm change in economics: a change in its fundamental presuppositions. Unsurprisingly, those wedded to the paradigm of neo-classical economics, including its commitment to growth were, and for the most part still are, resistant to the idea of a steady-state economy. Daly published his first paper in defense of a steady-state economy in 1972 and followed this at intervals throughout much of his career, fending off attacks from allcomers.
One of the most potent, if misinformed, critics of Daly’s steady-state economy was his teacher and mentor Georgescu-Roegen who claimed incorrectly that Daly thought an economy could maintain a steady-state forever. Daly, who had learned about the second law of thermodynamics from Georgescu-Roegen knew this was impossible and said as much even before Georgescu-Roegen criticized him. The debate between them continued under a different guise when Georgescu-Roegen wrongly accused Daly of being the architect of sustainable development which Georgescu-Roegen believed would consign poor countries to perpetual poverty. Daly’s principles of sustainable development helped clarify conditions for truly sustainable development.
