How Many Paradigms There are in Economic Theory – and Can it Become a One-paradigm Science

Abstract

Over the past 100 years, economics has stood out from other scientific disciplines because of the presence of two fundamentally different approaches to understanding its subject: from a systemic point of view, and from the point of view of individual choice. All the main directions of modern economic theory turn out to be reducible to two paradigms, conceptually related to two main interpretations of the economic science subject. The understanding of the economy as an equilibrium or non-equilibrium system is associated with two said paradigms. The author believes that the development of economic theory after Keynes can be interpreted as a series of attempts to integrate the identified paradigms. In another form, this is the question of the synthesis of micro- and macro-approaches in economic theory.