Rationality and Irrationality in Economics by Maurice Godelie... - 9781781680254

Rationality and Irrationality in EconomicsAuthor(s): Maurice Godelier, Brian Pearce\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Verso Books, United Kingdom\nImprint: Verso Books\nISBN-13: 9781781680254, 978-1781680254\nSynopsis\nThis book is the result of a research project begun by the author in 1958 with the aim of answering two questions:\nFirst, what is the rationality of the economic systems that appear and disappear throughout history-in other words, what is their hidden logic and the underlying necessity for them to exist, or to have existed?\nSecond, what are the conditions for a rational understanding of these systems-in other words, for a fully developed comparative economic science?\nThe field of investigation opened up by these two questions is vast, touching on the foundations of social reality and on how to understand them. The author, being a Marxist, sought the answers, as he writes, 'not in philosophy or by philosophical means, but in and through examining the knowledge accumulat.