K. Polanyi: Conoscenza scientifica e visione naturalistica nell'economics. Un'ipotesi di lavoro

As is well known, Polanyi's work promoted an intense debate on modern capitalism: on the peculiar features of the market economy, on the effects it has had on the configuration of social relations and on its influence on man's activities. In order to promote new analytical perspectives in social sciences, Polanyi focuses on the scientific distortions connected with the naturalistic view of the world adopted by economics, which – through the use of the category of homo oeconomicus – de-historicizes both the features of man and those of the economic system in which he acts. According to Polanyi, only a historically oriented research can explain the motives and aims of the individuals within an institutionalized environment, overcoming the analytical limits of mainstream economics. However, in his essay How to Make Use of the Social Sciences and in other works some epistemological uncertainties emerge in the pursuit of these objectives, since he acquires as a point of reference Menger, who moves in an opposite scientific direction. In fact, Mengerian reflection on the role of institutions does not change the approach of "mainstream monism", nor does it lead to a significant reconsideration of the relationship between economics and other social sciences, such as that proposed by Polanyi.