"An explanation of the "institutional approach" to economic theory is a plea for a particular kind of theory. It is possible to come upon the same object from different angles; but more often those who take different routes chance upon different things. The "institutional approach" doubtless has some importance because it is a happy way to acceptable truth, but its significance lies in its being the only way to the right sort of theory. An appeal for "institutional economics" implies no attack upon the truth or value of other bodies of economic thought, but it is a denial of the claims of other systems of thought to be "economic theory." This, however, is no pointless struggle in method to be carried on by breaking syllogisms over concepts and by engaging in polemics over niceties in statement. On the contrary, it involves the very nature of the problems which the theorist should set himself; its real issue is over what economic theory is all about."
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Academics from the United StatesEducators from the United StatesEconomists from the United StatesYale University facultyPeople from Tennessee
Original Language: English
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p. 309: Introduction
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walton_Hale_Hamilton
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Walton Hale Hamilton
1928 – 1948
Walton H. Hamilton (October 30, 1881 – October 27, 1958]]) was an American law professor who taught at the Yale Law School (1928–1948), although he was an economist, not a lawyer. In 1919 Hamilton coined the term "Institutional economics".
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