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The Pragmatism of John Kenneth Galbraith

Author

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  • Galbraith, James K.

    (Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations at The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin)

Abstract

For this essay, to honor Professor Kolodko, I take up the case of an older pragmatist whose circumstances and achievements I knew well – that of my father, John Kenneth Galbraith. While I cannot do full justice in this space to the life and work of 97 years, what I hope to show is how the application of my father’s background and experience in a world of mundane knowledge and urgent problems led to his development of a compelling critique of classical and neoclassical economics, and to his presentation of a world-view that stood, for a time, as the leading vision of industrial capitalism in the modern age. That this vision was swept aside, and largely dismissed or ignored, by the professional academic economists is, under the circumstances, merely a continuing testimony to its merit, and to the threat it poses to a comfortable, but wholly impractical, world-view.

Suggested Citation

  • Galbraith, James K., 2019. "The Pragmatism of John Kenneth Galbraith," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 69(supplemen), pages 195-213, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:aka:aoecon:v:69:y:2019:i:supplement1:p:195-213
    Note: His most recent books are Welcome to the Poisoned Chalice: The Destruction of Greece and the Future of Europe and Inequality: What Everyone Needs to Know.
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    File URL: http://www.akademiai.com/doi/pdf/10.1556/032.2019.69.S1.12
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    Keywords

    Galbraith; pragmatism;

    JEL classification:

    • A11 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Role of Economics; Role of Economists
    • A31 - General Economics and Teaching - - Multisubject Collective Works - - - Multisubject Collected Writings of Individuals
    • B25 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School
    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;

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