John Dewey's unknown critique of marginal utility doctrine
Instrumentalism, motivation, and values
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4003090 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rick Tilman (University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Terry Knapp (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) |
| Year | 1999 |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 391-408 |
| Publication date | 1999-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-5061 • E-ISSN: 1520-6696 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1002/(sici)1520-6696(199923)35:4<391::aid-jhbs5>3.0.co;2-# |
| PMID | 10531563 |
| OpenAlex | W1994484320 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 23 |
During the late nineteenth century, marginal utility theory became the dominant ideology of the new academic discipline of economics. This article explicates and discusses previously unexamined lecture notes prepared in 1913 by John Dewey on marginal utility doctrine. After briefly characterizing the state of marginal utility doctrine, Dewey's criticisms are shown to derive from his instrumentalism and general theory of value. In Dewey's view, marginalism privatized value and by doing so induced moral agnosticism, a condition of permanently suspended judgment regarding individual and social needs that was likely to undermine the foundations of a democratic community since it immunizes value against collective appraisal by public bodies. Moreover, while marginal utility theory represented a serious concerted attempt to deal with substantive problems of value in economics and the economy, to Dewey it was ultimately a form of apologetics for the existing mode of social relations.
Doctrine · Economics · Epistemology · Instrumentalism · Positive economics · Theology · Economic Theory and Institutions · Philosophy · Political Economy and Marxism · Pragmatism in Philosophy and Education
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| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,56 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2025 (9) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |