ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: Value-free science of N.Kondratiev. The reflection of methodological dispute of the late XIX century in Russian economic thought.
Author: Chaplygina Irina
Toward the end of the nineteenth century the classical mechanistic approach to the interpretation of economic relations attenuated under the influence of whether romanticism or Kantian and neo-kantian philosophy or directly of German historical school of economics. The active role of human will in the social and economic life started to be stressed, as well as the active role of human mind in process of cognition which interpreted as not mere reflection but transformation or interpretation of reality. Two methodological aspects were discussed. The first was the nature of economic events: whether they are objective and autonomous or primarily determined by human will (social and historical relationships, value judgments etc.). The second was the principles of scientific research of social events, especially the problem of positive and normative economy (L.Walras, J.Neville Keynes, M. Weber). Russian economists were involved in this methodological discussions (A.A.Tchuprov, N.D.Kondratiev). Especially Kondratiev in his latest work “The Main Problems of Economic Statics and Dynamics” drew a distinction between positive and normative judgments. He analyzed the logical structure of that two types of propositions. Adopted Ernest Cassirer ideas that all kind of theoretical constructions are hypothetical, Kondratiev proved, that positive judgments have as starting points pure hypothetical axioms , which couldn’t be verified by reality and aren’t more realistic that values which are the starting points of normative judgments. Furthermore both positive and normative sentences are based on the same method of inducing propositions. So the only difference is the subject of the statements. Positive ones speak about real observable events in contrast to normative ones which make statements concerning the values sphere that couldn’t be examined by appellation to the experience. Thus Kondratiev expresses the hypothetico-deductive model of scientific method. At the same time his work represents the great reliance on the possibility of empirical verification of theoretical conjectures concerned to observable events, the reliance that will be criticized by philosopher of XX-th, as well as the objectivity of observable facts. Kondratiev denied the significant role of human will and of values in real word. So he kept mechanistic view on economic and social relationships. Especially he criticized the approach of German historical school of economics and more consistently the theleological tendencies evolved in Russian economy at the beginning of XX-th century.
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