On Arguments Not Of A Logical Type

"The critique of Robinson and Sraffa is more than forty years old. Yet for psychological and political reasons, rather than for logical and mathematical ones, the capital critique has not penetrated mainstream economics. It likely never will. Today only a handful of economists seem aware of it. Aggregate production function applications run rampart in studies of economic growth (new growth theory), development and convergence, and international trade (factor-price equalization and other applications of Heckscher-Ohlin). Ostensible liberals are not exempt; their arguments for higher public infrastructure investment (based on its alleged marginal productivity) are precisely of this type, as are arguments for increased investment in education based on the higher marginal productivity of human skill. To mainstream economics, Keynesianism has been reduced to a narrow doctrine relating sticky wages, public spending, and employment. The fact that there exists a Post Keynesian distribution theory, still less the reasons for it, has been mostly forgotton." -- James Galbraith, "The Distribution of Income". In A New Guide to Post Keynesian Economics, 2001.

"It should not be asked why the post-classical theory has been so determined in rejecting, or so astute in avoiding, the capital theory criticism raised against it; it should instead be asked why that criticism has been so ineffective to the point of being ultimately incapable of undermining currently dominant economic theory. Perhaps the question which should be asked is whether a purely logical critique could undermine a theory with so many ideological implications. That question – one that invites no small irony when asked about a tradition of economic theorising that prides itself on having excluded ethical values – surely deserves careful consideration." -- Guglielmo Chiodi and Leonardo Ditta (forthcoming)