History of Economic Thought as an Analytic Tool: why Past Intellectual Ideas Must Be Acknowledged as Lighthouses for the Future

Abstract

Contemporaries tend to question certain belief systems including academic systems of knowledge. Paradigms evolve to become a subject of inquiry. The need to acknowledge history of economic thought as a neglected but important domain of economic inquiry as an important discussion topic. During recent decades, history of economic thought has largely been abolished and has disappeared from many contemporary teaching curricula in economics. The article argues that our academic understanding of economics is incomplete if we do not respect history and understand the social embeddedness of economic institutions and social behaviour. Of course, one must distinguish between history of intellectual ideas and economic history. Both items have to be discussed separately when assessing methodological appropriateness and benefits. The argumentation is based on the work of Joseph A. Schumpeter who dealt in detail with the question why and how to deal with historiography as a tool of proper economics in his substantial introduction to the 1945 book History of Economic Analysis.