Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/292584 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Citation: 
[Journal:] Journal of Contextual Economics – Schmollers Jahrbuch [ISSN:] 2568-762X [Volume:] 140 [Issue:] 3-4 [Year:] 2020 [Pages:] 301-317
Publisher: 
Duncker & Humblot, Berlin
Abstract: 
One of the defining features of modern social science and economics in particular is the hard break it posits between everyday and scientific knowledge. French philosophers have called this characteristic the epistemological break. One of the key consequences of this break is that scientists have access to superior knowledge and are in a position to inform and steer the behavior of individuals. We believe that a large epistemological break is incompatible with science in a liberal democratic society. In this paper we analyze the extent to which the writings of Deirdre McCloskey contributed to bridging the epistemological break given that her early work, and the work of some members of younger Chicago School of economics more generally, was strongly influenced by the epistemological break. In the first decade after The Rhetoric of Economics McCloskey did much to strip scientific knowledge of its special elevated status. In her later work on the bourgeoisie there is also a renewed appreciation for everyday knowledge of economic actors. Yet important tensions remain, the appreciation for bourgeois knowledge has not been generalized to an appreciation for all everyday economic knowledge. And the tension between the economist as teacher, and the economist as student of society, which is already present in the Chicago tradition, is still visible.
Subjects: 
Epistemological Break
Deirdre McCloskey
Expert Knowledge
Everyday Knowledge
Bourgeoisie
JEL: 
A13
A14
B41
Z13
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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