Transactional Economics: John Dewey's Ways of Knowing and the Radical Subjectivism of the Austrian School

The radical subjectivism of the Austrian school of economics is a special case of Dewey’s ways of knowing. Austrian economists adopted an Aristotelian deductive approach to economic issues such as social behavior and exchange. In Dewey’s contrasting view, the scientist commends new, alternative ways of knowing to the scientific community, offering more profound insight or more efficacious practical applications. Alternative ways of knowing which do not offer practical or intellectual benefits are to be rejected. Dewey’s transactional strategy, asserting knowledge as ways of knowing, suggests a broader and more fundamental critique of the socialist position in the calculation debate. The arguments presented by the Austrian school can be reformulated in terms of Dewey’s transactional philosophy.