The Stumbling-blocks of Economics: Complexity, Time and Change

This is Chapter 6 from Social Economics: An Alternative Theory (St. Martin's Press, 1991) There were issues of complexity, time and change which Alfred Marshall recognized as essential aspects of his subject but which were not readily dealt with by the 'scientific' techniques which he was helping to develop. As he feared, the forces which he helped to put in motion have in fact resulted in a situation wherein these bothersome but crucial issues have been pushed aside by techniques which are powerful in other achievements, but not sufficient for the degree of complexity that interested Marshall. This chapter outlines what Marshall saw as the deepest problems in the development of an economic science - problems which, the author claims, have continued to enjoy the same status: as unsolved, if not insoluble.