Working Backwards: Instrumental analysis as a policy discovery procedure
Abstract
Following up on suggestions of Adolph Lowe, the paper draws on the work of Peirce, Polya and Michael Polanyi to elaborate the notion of Lowe's instrumental analysis as a policy discovery procedure. It is argued that such an interpretation of Lowe's instrumentalism may contribute to the formulation of effective practical policies. It is also argued in the paper that this interpretation throws light on some issues concerning markets and planning that relate to the debate on socialist calculation that has been revived in the name of the 'knowledge problem' by contemporary Austrian economists. In particular, it is argued that Lowe's Instrumentalism brings to the fore the role of discovery and creativity-which are central to Austrian conceptions of entrepreneurial activity in the market-in policy formulation. In this sense Lowe's work may be seen as an antecedent to more recent work in planning that critiques-and promotes nonessentialist alternatives to-optimal or rational planning.Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by Taylor and Francis Journals in its journal Review of Political Economy.
Volume (Year): 11 (1999)
Issue (Month): 1 ()
Pages: 5-18
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- M Forstater, 2005. "In Memoriam: Robert L Heilbrone- the continuing relevance of the Worldly Philosophy," Economic Issues Journal Articles, Economic Issues, vol. 10(1), pages 59-66, March.
- Mathew Forstater, 2004. "Visions and Scenarios: Heilbroner's Worldly Philosophy, Lowe's Political Economics, and the Methodology of Ecological Economics," Method and Hist of Econ Thought 0411002, EconWPA.
- Jerry Courvisanos, 2009. "Regional Innovation for Sustainable Development: An Australian Perspective," Journal of Innovation Economics, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(1), pages 119-143.
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