Bourgeois economists avoided totalizing models out of class instinct

Evidence

Marx is able to show not only that the middle-class economists were unable to evolve a unified field theory into which these various empirically observed phenomena might be integrated, but indeed that they instinctively avoided doing so. It was as though they sensed the dangerous social and political consequences of the kind of total and systematic model of economic reality which will later be embodied in Das Kapital; in order to avoid those consequences they are obliged to pursue their research on a fragmentary and empirical level only. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 374

Categorization

• XREF: This anticipates the reader’s pursuit of totalization as a theme — the refusal of totality as a defense mechanism connects to Lukács’s theory of reification and antinomies of bourgeois thought. — connects to: The economists’ classless models concealed openly classist beliefs — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1306; Pure economics expelled class analysis but smuggled class assumptions back in — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1304; Economists equated the bourgeoisie with homo economicus to naturalize class society — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1128 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Economists equated the bourgeoisie with homo economicus to naturalize class society #exemplifies (0.95) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1128
• The economists’ classless models concealed openly classist beliefs #expands (0.92) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1306
• Pure economics expelled class analysis but smuggled class assumptions back in #expands (0.90) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1304
• The four economists’ models made capital rather than labor the economic engine #expands (0.88) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1124
• Neoclassical economics replaced class analysis with individualistic merit narratives #expands (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 30
• Mont Pelerin Society members deny the salience of class in modern economies #exemplifies (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1973
• Economists depoliticized austerity by presenting class-based coercion as neutral expertise. #exemplifies (0.78) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1569