The Place of Economic Theory in Graduate Work
The very words of this topic are provocative. We are invited to consider the place of economic theory in graduate work. Here at the outset is the implication that in a general scheme of advanced economic study theory is to occupy a place somewhat apart. A distinction is, in effect, drawn for us between economic theory and ordinary economics. If this suggested distinction were merely the mishap of a phrase it would be trivial to notice it. But in fact it accords closely with a good deal of our academic practice, and finds colloquial expression in our departmental discussions. We organize and announce separate courses in "theory." We require a specialist in "theory" as one member of a well-balanced economic staff. We are asked to recommend "a man in theory" to fill a vacant chair. We intrust "practical" courses to teachers who lack both inclination and capacity for "theoretical" instruction. We remark a bent toward theory in certain of our graduate students and an inaptitude for theory in others-thus ourselves raising, more or less superficially, the question that is here raised for us: What, after all, is the proper place of theory in the general plan of graduate instruction ? Now, of course, this prevalent view of the subject has its reasons and in some degree its justification. Undeniably, there are recognizable and proper differences in the stage of abstraction to which our several economic inquiries are pursued. But we have allowed these differences of degree and extent to grow into supposedly important differences of kind, with results which are unfortunate alike for economic theory and for the impliedly non-theoretical economics. In consequence we habitually set off economic theory as a distinct branch of our subject; we identify it to a regrettable extent with the more or less conventionalized theory of value and distribution; and, attributing to economic theory, thus conceived, a
- DOI
- 10.1086/252926
- Volume
- 25 (1)
- Pages
- 48-57
- Language
- en
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