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Reflections on Schumpeter's Writings

1951; The MIT Press; Volume: 33; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1925881

1530-9142

Wolfgang F. Stolper,

Economic Theory and Institutions

IT seems that a really great man in our field is known chiefly by one contribution which may or may not be his main achievement. As Malthus suggests population and Ricardo rent or perhaps the law of comparative advantage, so economic development, innovation, and entrepreneur are the catch words associated with Schumpeter. Such associations may be correct and may even have a function. Yet in the case of every great name in economics they are at best a small part of what constitutes the greatness. At worst they are a caricature. For what matters is not merely the one or the other idea, however great, however significant. What matters is the place of the idea in the vision of the genius, the theory in the literal sense: the view of things as a whole. Schumpeter, in his own writings, repeats this again and again: If a statement has logical flaws, it must be discarded. If it is free of logical mistakes, it receives its meaning only from its context. This viewpoint not only gives the clue to Schumpeter's open-mindedness and tolerance toward other men's ideas, his willingness and ability to see every point of view; it not only explains how he could understand everything and yet cling to his own view; it is essential to the real understanding of his theory.