The Pragmatism Trap: Economics in Crisis

Abstract

As a discipline grounded in pragmatic methodology, economics has exerted wide interdisciplinary influence through its epistemological framework and research practices. However, despite its strong explanatory capacity, orthodox economics, covering both theory-oriented academic economics and policy-oriented political economics, exhibits limited predictive power. This paper argues that the root cause is the shift since the 1970s toward a more self-contained intellectual enterprise within the economics community. More precisely, the discipline has faced a paradigmatic crisis over the past fifty years, in which instrumental rationality—favoring methodological precision, temporal expediency, and sectoral optimization—has taken precedence over value rationality, with its focus on ethical evaluation, long-term sustainability, and holistic perspectives. Examining four dimensions—disciplinary imbalances, methodological limits, theoretical presuppositions, and socio-institutional implications—this study argues that prioritizing instrumental over value rationality continues an Enlightenment-style scientific hegemony rooted in a misreading of pragmatic epistemology.

JEL: A1, B0, E0, H0, P0.