This paper is the introduction to a special issue of the Cambridge Journal of Economics on the topic of ontology and the history of economic thought. It explains what is meant by social ontology and why ontological issues should be taken seriously by historians of economic thought. It then goes...

This paper develops a response to some of the criticisms that have been made of G.L.S. Shackle's analysis of human decision-making because of its reliance on a Cartesian account of the mind. It is argued that the basis for a response can be found in the work on theoretical psychology developed...

This essay introduces the key themes, and papers, in an edited volume entitled, Commerce and Community: Ecologies of Social Cooperation. Since the end of the Cold War, the human face of economics has gained visibility and generated new conversations among economists and other social theorists....

This paper uses the theory of complex systems as a conceptual lens through which to compare the work of Friedrich Hayek and Vincent and Elinor Ostrom. It is well known that, from the 1950s onwards, Hayek conceptualised the market as a complex adaptive system. It is argued in this paper that,...

This paper is a review essay of the latest volume of The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek, entitled 'The Market and other Orders.' The paper examines the development of Hayeks' ideas about order, as manifested in the essays collected in this volume. Issues examined include: Hayek's accounts of the...

This paper compares and contrasts two schools of political economy: the Austrian School, prominent members of which include Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises; and the Bloomington School, which was founded by Elinor and Vincent Ostrom. It is argued that the two traditions share a good deal in...

Historians of economic thought are paying greater attention to issues of social ontology (that is, to the assumptions that economists make about the nature of social reality). In this paper, we contribute to this burgeoning literature by exploring the hitherto neglected way in which James...

This paper is an introduction to an edited volume entitled, 'Transforming Economics: Perspectives on the Critical Realist Project.' It outlines the project of critical realism in economics, describing how the latter's emphasis on social ontology shapes its approach to economic methodology and...

We address the challenge of attempting to advance a strong and consistently subjectivist view of economic agency without simultaneously undermining the possibility of providing a coherent account of social institutions and socio-economic order. The argument is presented as a case study and...

Robert Sugden has advanced various critiques of behavioural welfare economics, offering the notion of opportunity as an alternative. We agree with much of Sugden’s critique but argue that his approach would benefit from a broadening of the informational base beyond opportunities to include...