This post is a homage to Alison Wylie, who is one of the few philosophers of science who has interesting things to say about evidential arguments used in real science, and the key-note speaker to a workshop organized by the very talented Helen De Cruz. Wylie is also a feminist advocate of situated knowledge and standpoint theory. Now, what follows is stimulated by her presentation as well as the two interesting contributed talks on the origin of the concept of measuring unemployment (by the historian of economics, Peter Rodenberg) and Ricardo's delineation of the economy (by the young philosopher of science, Guus Dix).
In chapter 31 of his Principles, Ricardo argues "That the opinion entertained by the labouring class, that the employment of machinery is frequently detrimental to their interests, is not founded on prejudice and error, but is conformable to the correct principles of political economy." (31.16)
Now this chapter is not ignored: luminaries such as Wicksell (in a paper originally rejected by Keynes) and Samuelson have spilled considerable ink on this claim. But what seems little noticed is that Ricardo vindicates situated knowledge of ordinary folk in that chapter. This is especially striking because a) Ricardo's result here is at tension with some of his other claims and commitments; b) in the chapter, Ricardo seems to have his eye on the significance of structural, involuntary unemployment (due to technological changes); c) Ricardo's clearly allows that the lower classes do adequately understand their interests and the consequences of policy interests--and this may make him the first (?) THEORIST to allow the uneducated, vulgar the status of true understanding (conformable to the correct principles of political economy"); d) even Adam Smith, who is extremely sympathetic to the plight of the labouring classes (and often takes their side), seems to think that workers are too overworked and often too ignorant to adequately understand the remote consequences of such structural changes in the economy.
On c: Ricardo does not claim that they possess their knowledge in virtue of their position. But in context, he acknowledges that because their interests were being violated the laborers recognized the a truth of political economy before anyone else.
Scholarly note: I am no Ricardo scholar, so I am unsure if features c-d have been noticed in the scholarly literature.
Recent Comments