Seventeenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Economic crises tend to intensify social conflict and the consequent reconsideration of present economic and political theories and practices. Within this framework, this study introduces research intended to prove that it is impossible to develop an effective economic policy in a capitalist economic system. My theoretical approach is called ‘reconstructive and projective technography’, a development of methodical constructivism as understood by authors like Paul Lorenzen or Peter Janich. The main idea is to integrate the theoretical side of economic science with its social and political dimensions, thus highlighting the importance of theory and philosophy as a tool of social welfare. I take the following steps: 1) Starting from a set of economic realizations, I conceptualize and reconstruct economic policies using a precisely constructed language. I choose representative examples of economic policies after the 2007 crisis, concretely those claimed to restore economic growth, reduce state budget deficit or decrease unemployment. And I select three countries: the US, Germany and Spain. 2) Basing on (1), I find some rules of the game of the economic system which are common to these three economies and any other market economy such that they apply to any possible economic policy within such economies. 3) Basing on (1) and (2), I criticize the economic theories used to justify these policies and thus their alleged theoretical foundation. 4) Basing on (1), (2) and (3), I prove my impossibility theorem.