Much of this discussion comes from the Methods and Hume and Peirce chapters in Institutional Economics. (pages 80-157) Commons spent a significant amount of time addressing idealism versus investigation. Commons argued that previous theories attempted were based on idealism in creating harmony out of conflict of interests. His examples were that individualistic theories based their addressing conflicts of interest through private property and collective economics such as Marxism based on collective property. The problem in Commons view is that these theories are based on ideals or some state of nirvana and not an investigation of the reality on the ground. Commons then discusses that there are thousands of natural experiments occurring in collective action to create order not a harmony out of conflict of interest. Another manner in which Commons classifies various schools is by a summary of their of how to address conflicts: Do nothing schools Exploitation...
This blog has been setup to explore the ideas and philosophy of the American institutional economist John R. Commons.