Organicism and the Role of the Individual in Keynes’ Thought

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In the last few years, growing number of economists have begun to look to the philosophical and methodological underpinnings of Keynes' economics. Among the questions that have arisen is the degree to which Keynes believed systems to be atomistic versus organic. The prevailing view, best expressed by Hamouda and Smithin, is that, according to Keynes, a clear distinction should be made between the natural sciences and the moral or social sciences, and that whatever may be the status of the atomic hypothesis in the former, it is definitely inappropriate in the latter (Hamouda and Smithin, 1988, p. 161; see also Winslow, 1986, pp. 422-423). Moreover, it is held that Keynes originally subscribed to an atomistic view of the moral and material world, but he abandoned that view sometime in the 1920s with regard to the social sciences, especially economics.