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Cambridge Journal of Economics 26:81-103 (2002)
Copyright © 2002 Cambridge Political Economy Society

Article

Modern economics: the case of the disappearing body?

Jack Amariglio and David F. Ruccio

Merrimack College and University of Notre Dame

Abstract

The human body is said, by critics of mainstream, modern economics, to have ‘disappeared’ from economic theory over the past century. Like subjectivity, the body is thought to have been displaced through mathematical formalism. In this paper, we present the story of this purported disappearance, from the emergence of the ‘full’ desiring and labouring body in Classical economics to its supposed elimination in contemporary neoclassical theory. We also present a critique of this narrative, since the story of the body's disappearance presumes a universal ‘real’ body as a norm. In criticising this story for its humanism and universalism, we provide an alternative reading of contemporary neoclassical economics in which a decentred, fragmented, ‘postmodern’ body (rather than no body at all) can be seen to emerge.

Key Words: Body • Classical political economy • Methodology • Postmodernism • Heterodox economics


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