RETHINKING ECONOMICS: BEYOND THE PARADIGM OF INSTRUMENTAL RATIONALITY

This paper critically examines contemporary mainstream economics, revealing it to be in a state of profound paradigm crisis characterized by an excessive focus on instrumental rationality at the expense of value rationality. Tracing the intellectual evolution from Classical foundations (Smith’s division of labor, Ricardo’s comparative advantage) through Keynesian demand management and subsequent challenges from Hayek and Friedman, the analysis highlights a trajectory where economics progressively distanced itself from socio-political realities and phenomenological depth through mathematical formalization. The discipline, originally a servant to political science concerning wealth production and distribution, faces significant paradoxes: Its limited predictive power for markets and crises contradicts its prominent societal status; the market-state dichotomy questions the necessity of economists; and internal theoretical fragmentation (monetarism, rational expectations, supply-side economics) weakens its explanatory power. Ultimately, the paper argues for a fundamental rebalancing, advocating for a dialectical unity of instrumental and value rationality to address the core theoretical presuppositions, methodological flaws, developmental imbalances, and adverse real-world consequences stemming from the current crisis.