Question

In 500 words explain what the illusion of the epoch by John F. Henry about?

Answer 1

A innovation of neoclassical economic theory is undertaken from the vantage point of Marx’s theoretical stance termed “the illusion of the epoch”,The illusion of the epoch represents the dominant ideology or set of ideologies through which minority ruling classes attempt to convince the underlying population of the rightness of their rule. It clearly is not limited to capitalist society, but it is capitalism with which we are here concerned.Neoclassical theory is one general argument that illustrates the illusion within this social framework. It would not be appropriate to feudal or slave society because the supposedly natural, universal laws it displays are based on some characteristics of capitalism (exchange, private control over factors of production, and the like).Essentially, the general theory of neoclassicism erects a fictitious capitalist society which then serves as the substitute for that of reality. The mythical capitalism is then held up as the ideal, the standard, to which all real social organizations must tend. Given that the universal laws of capitalist theory operate independent of time and place, all societies, then, regardless of superficial characteristics, are really nascent capitalism.As economists in the modern period are trained within the prevailing orthodoxy (the illusion), it is difficult, if not impossible, to see neoclassicismas illustrative of Henry’s argument. Given that neoclassicism is the theory to which students are subjected, and that this theory conforms to the general ideological framework to which all are subjected, it is extremely hard to escape the confines of the “vision” the theory sets forth. It is only within the context of a broad exposure to the actual development of both capitalism (real economic history) and economic theory (real history of economic thought) that one becomes able to form a judgment on neoclassicism independent of thestrictures of the theory itself to become able to see it from outside as it were.If this is achieved, it is then possible to develop a new understanding of the neoclassical argument. Rather than accepting it as “revealed truth”, theneoclassical apparatus is seen as a political statement that is mandated by the nature of a society based on inequality, where the argument itself attempts to present a case that this inequality is not only natural but should be accepted by the “lower orders”. And this is the illusion of the epoch.

The theory aslo examine the examination of exchange necessitates quantification, maximization,and the principle of rationality or the economic principle the minimizing ofbsomething (costs) for a given result, or the maximization of something (profits) for a given outlay.

Note that in the above quotes, all economists argue the proposition that (correct) economic laws and the categories that follow from these laws are natural; are independent of time, place, and form of social organization. As it intimates, society may be organized in ways that mitigate against these laws being fully operational, but eventually people learn to structure their social forms to accommodate such super-societal rules of behavior. And this structure is consistent with competitive capitalism.