1. THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN ECONOMIC THEORY.
- Author
-
Ayres, Clarence E.
- Subjects
TECHNOLOGY ,ECONOMICS ,MICROECONOMICS ,FIELD theory (Social psychology) ,SOCIAL theory ,INDUSTRIAL organization (Economic theory) - Abstract
The article discusses the role of technology in economics. During virtually the whole of their mature existence, that is, throughout the century that has followed the publication of Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species," social sciences have been moving steadily in the direction of a unified field theory of human behavior, social structure and cultural process. Economics has participated largely in this movement. Most empirical studies and most practical activities in which economists have engaged have been consonant with and contributory to this common understanding of man and society. But neoclassical price theory has not, for reasons, which lie partly on the side of economic theory and partly on the side of general social theory. On both sides a technological hiatus has been largely responsible. Lacking any notion of the technological process by which the industrial economy was coming into being, or even of cultural processes in general, or even of zoological evolution, originators of the market theory of the economy therefore assumed mankind to be a special creation, endowed by "Nature" with aptitudes and propensities such as would bring the whole congeries of economic activities into equilibrium if only tyrannical governments could be induced to leave them alone.
- Published
- 1953