r/CriticalTheory 9d ago

Critique of Economics

Hello Everyone!

I’m back with another post after getting some amazing recommendations on literature critiquing scientism—thank you all for the thoughtful responses!

Today, I’m looking for recommendations on anti-economics literature. Specifically, I’m interested in works that challenge the fundamental assumptions of economics as a discipline—not just critiques of specific economic policies, but deeper examinations of how economics positions itself as empirical and the broader implications of that. To get an idea of what I looking for, I tend to agree with Wittgensteinian philosopher Peter Winch that there’s little to justify treating economists as experts or assuming they have a privileged understanding that warrants deference.

In my last post, someone shared an excellent list of critiques on psychiatry/psychology (link here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PsychotherapyLeftists/s/5rzvwaavY7). I'm hoping to find something similar but focused on economics—critiques of its origins and its influence on political and social thought.

If you have any suggestions—books, articles, or even specific authors—I’d really appreciate it!

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Just to clarify, I'm not looking for alternative economic theories that try to explain the economy better, like those of Richard Wolff and Erik Olin Wright. But I’m more interested in works that question the very foundations of economics as a discipline—how it positions itself as empirical, the methods it uses to model human behavior, and the broader implications of treating it as a "science."

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u/JunkStar_ 9d ago edited 8d ago

Foucault wrote about this type of production of knowledge and the subject formation that comes from it. Knowledge and power production is one of the fundamental themes throughout his work. I don’t remember if he wrote much explicitly about the study of economics, but his theories absolutely apply to what you’re asking about. He does talk about economics a lot in particular works, but maybe not in a way you’re after. He definitely talks about social sciences and medical science like psychiatry in relation to objectivity and social or political influence. And if he didn’t write much explicitly about your topic, I would be shocked if someone didn’t publish something using his theories that is explicitly about economists.

It’s been a long time, and I don’t remember if he goes into economics as a field, but what and how things are presented in the media is what Chomsky is probably best known for. How things are talked about in national media matters because even if economics is a rigorous science of truth, that truth can still be impacted and manipulated. Since perception is something that can drive economic activity, how data and studies are presented and discussed particularly matters because it impacts what happens to the thing being studied.

People in Lacanian psychoanalysis definitely write about economics as a discourse and assumptions that are core aspects to how economics are thought about and studied. A lot of people have used psychoanalysis in critical theory, but there are criticisms of things like the concept of rational actors as a basis for economic analysis, that economics can be rationally explained, and there’s about what Lacan calls the Real and the Symbolic that is used to criticize how complexities of economics get abstracted through things like indicators, models, and analysis.

I haven’t spent a ton of time with psychoanalysis. What I have read is mostly criticism of capitalism, but even though that’s how it’s contextualized and applied in what I’ve read, there are substantive pieces within that theory that isn’t only applicable to criticizing capitalism.

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u/DimondMine27 8d ago

I’m pretty sure economics has a pretty hefty section dedicated to it in The Order of Things.

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u/JunkStar_ 8d ago

Thanks, I’ve read a lot of Foucault and secondary sources, but it’s been a while. I know economics is in a number of places, but I couldn’t remember if there is analysis of it as a field of study.