EM ALGUM LUGAR DO PASSADO: BREVES REFLEXÕES SOBRE A RELEVÂNCIA DA HISTÓRIA DA TEORIA ECONÔMICA

Abstract

This essay is intended to put forward some fragmentary remarks about the meaning and importance of the history of economic theory to scientific progress in and of economic theory. To that end, it incorporates some sociological formulations developed by Pierre Bourdieu, particularly his interesting approach to the complex process of competition that prevails in a given scientific field. Such an incorporation is predicated upon the belief that the scientific field inhabited by economists, like any other scientific field, is itself a social locus of intense disputes over the actual importance of historical studies of the discipline.