Keywords

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Economics is a rigorous and proud discipline ready to leave the past behind and to give up its formerly cherished ideas, concepts, and methods if they are considered to be false or no longer relevant. This even applies to the apparent foundations of economics. The collection of texts in this volume bears witness to this state of upheaval in economics.

In editing, we are very aware that the contributions in this volume do not present a representative view of economists. There are certainly scholars who would object to some, perhaps even most, of its suggestions. An economist reared in the traditional way of “doing economics” might very well be shocked by some of the propositions put forth by the contributors. Nevertheless, even a more or less representative sample of scholars will frequently find itself proclaiming ideas that are not in line with the profession’s orthodoxy as it is presented in major textbooks. We have on purpose selected authors who we expect to have fresh and unusual views about economic science.

We want to push forward economics, following Schumpeter’s dictum on “creative destruction”. The views brought forward here constitute an excellent basis to further develop our discipline. The collection contains a great number of novel ideas worth pursuing.

Max Planck, the inventor of quantum theory, once said (or at least is believed to have said) that science advances one funeral at a time. He was talking about deceased scientists, not deceased ideas, but you have to let go of both of them.

John Maynard Keynes remarked in 1936s General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money: “The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been”.

We hope that this collection of essays makes a small contribution towards overcoming this difficulty.