--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Everything economic science posits as…" description: "\"“Everything economic science posits as given, that is, the range of dispositions of the economic agent which ground the illusion of the ahistorical uni..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7dc/pierre-bourdieu-16809_economics_everything-economic-science-posits-as-gi_2144.jpg" --- # Everything economic science posits as given, that is, the… ![“Everything economic science posits as given, that is, the range of dispositions of the economic agent which ground the illusion of the ahistorical universality of the categories and concepts employed by that science, is, in fact, the paradoxical product of a long collective history, endlessly…” quote by Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7dc/pierre-bourdieu-16809_economics_everything-economic-science-posits-as-gi_2144.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7dc/pierre-bourdieu-16809_economics_everything-economic-science-posits-as-gi_2144.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7dc/pierre-bourdieu-16809_economics_everything-economic-science-posits-as-gi_2144.jpg) > ““Everything economic science posits as given, that is, the range of dispositions of the economic agent which ground the illusion of the ahistorical universality of the categories and concepts employed by that science, is, in fact, the paradoxical product of a long collective history, endlessly reproduced in individual histories, which can be fully accounted for only by historical analysis: it is because history has inscribed these concomitantly in social and cognitive structures, practical patterns of thinking, perception and action, that it has conferred the appearance of natural, universal self-evidence on the institutions economics claims to theorize ahistorically; it has done this by, among other things, the amnesia of genesis that is encouraged, in this field as in others, by the immediate accord between the ‘subjective’ and the ‘objective’, between dispositions and positions, between anticipations (or hopes) and opportunities. Against the ahistorical vision of economics, we must, then, reconstitute, on the one hand, the genesis of the economic dispositions of economic agents and, especially, of their tastes, needs, propensities or aptitudes (for calculation, saving or work itself) and, on the other, the genesis of the economic field itself, that is to say, we must trace the history of the process of differentiation and autonomization which leads to the constitution of this specific game: the economic field as a cosmos obeying its own laws and thereby conferring a (limited) validity on the radical autonomization which pure theory effects by constituting the economic sphere as a separate world. It was only very gradually that the sphere of commodity exchange separated itself out from the other fields of existence and its specific nomos asserted itself – the nomos expressed in the tautology ‘business is business’; that economic transactions ceased to be conceived on the model of domestic exchanges, and hence as governed by social or family obligations (‘there’s no sentiment in business’); and that the calculation of individual gain, and hence economic interest, won out as the dominant, if not indeed exclusive, principle of business against the collectively imposed and controlled repression of calculating inclinations associated with the domestic economy. The”” [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Economic concepts appear natural but are historically constructed; understanding their genesis reveals their contingent nature. **In simple terms:** Economic ideas are historically shaped. Key Takeaway Study history behind economic theories. Themes history economics social constructs agency knowledge Mood critical academic intellectual Type Economics:1 History:1 Science:0 Economic Dispositions:1 Ahistorical Universality:1 Dispositions Economic:1 Theorize Ahistorically:1 Economic Agents:1 When to use this quote - policy analysis - academic research - education curricula Key Concepts historical materialism structural analysis cognitive sociology Questions to Reflect On - How does historical context change economic policy? - What assumptions seem natural but are actually contingent? A Different Perspective Complex language may obscure practical implications for lay readers. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Ahistorical Universality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ahistorical-universality-259390/) [Dispositions Economic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dispositions-economic-259391/) [Economic Agents](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/economic-agents-259393/) [Economic Dispositions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/economic-dispositions-259389/) [Economics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/economics/) [History](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/history/) [Science](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/science/) [Theorize Ahistorically](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/theorize-ahistorically-259392/) ## Related quotes > [But the system of prices ruling the market not only transmits information in the light of which economic agents can mutually adjust their actions,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-polanyi/but-the-system-of-prices-ruling-the-market-not-only-transmits/) [Michael Polanyi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-polanyi/) > [In the mid-'60s in Berkeley, the theory of measure spaces of economic agents became one of my main interests.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gerard-debreu/in-the-mid-60s-in-berkeley-the-theory-of-measure-spaces-of-economic/) [Gerard Debreu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gerard-debreu/) > [“Economists have a singular method of procedure. 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Future job and economic growth in industry, defense, transportation, agriculture,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-bond/advances-in-technology-will-continue-to-reach-far-into-every-sector/) [Christopher Bond](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-bond/) > [Our biggest challenge is to eliminate the popular perception that economists don't have anything useful to say.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-zandi/our-biggest-challenge-is-to-eliminate-the-popular-perception-that/) [Mark Zandi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-zandi/) > [Crony capitalism is essentially a condition in which... public officials are giving favours to people in the private sector in payment of political favours.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-greenspan/crony-capitalism-is-essentially-a-condition-in-which-public-officials/) [Alan Greenspan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-greenspan/) > [Don't let's lose sight of what creates wealth. It is open markets, it is capitalism.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rupert-murdoch/don-t-let-s-lose-sight-of-what-creates-wealth-it-is-open-markets-it/) [Rupert Murdoch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rupert-murdoch/) ## More by Pierre Bourdieu > [Every established order tends to produce the naturalization of its own arbitrariness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/every-established-order-tends-to-produce-the-naturalization-of-its/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [Symbolic violence is violence wielded with tacit complicity between its victims and its agents, insofar as both remain unconscious of submitting to or wielding…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/symbolic-violence-is-violence-wielded-with-tacit-complicity-between/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [Algeria is what allowed me to accept myself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/algeria-is-what-allowed-me-to-accept-myself/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [“While economics is about how people make choice, sociology is about how they don’t have any choice to make. Bertrand Russell”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/while-economics-is-about-how-people-make-choice-sociology-is-about/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [“The radical questionnings announced by philosophy are in fact circumscribed by the interests linked to membership in the philosophical field, that is, to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/the-radical-questionnings-announced-by-philosophy-are-in-fact/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [“The science called ‘economics’ is based on an initial act of abstraction that consists in dissociating a particular category of practices, or a particular…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/the-science-called-economics-is-based-on-an-initial-act-of/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [“The entire destiny of modern linguistics is in fact determined by Saussure's inaugural act through which he separates the ‘external’ elements of linguistics from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/the-entire-destiny-of-modern-linguistics-is-in-fact-determined-by/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [The point of my work is to show that culture and education arent simply hobbies or minor influences. They are hugely important in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/the-point-of-my-work-is-to-show-that-culture-and-education-arent/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [Unless saved by exceptional talent, he necessarily pays a price for clarity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/unless-saved-by-exceptional-talent-he-necessarily-pays-a-price-for/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [Photography itself is most frequently nothing but the reproduction of the image that a group produces of its own integration.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/photography-itself-is-most-frequently-nothing-but-the-reproduction-of/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [Only in imaginary experience (in the folk tale, for example), which neutralizes the sense of social realities, does the social world take the form…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/only-in-imaginary-experience-in-the-folk-tale-for-example-which/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [“A number of ethical, aesthetic, psychiatric or forensic classfications that are produced by the "institutional sciences",not to mention those produced and inculcated by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/a-number-of-ethical-aesthetic-psychiatric-or-forensic-classfications/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [The mind is a metaphor of the world of objects.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/the-mind-is-a-metaphor-of-the-world-of-objects/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [Television enjoys a de facto monopoly on what goes into the heads of a significant part of the population and what they think.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/television-enjoys-a-de-facto-monopoly-on-what-goes-into-the-heads-of/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) > [The most successful ideological effects are those which have no need for words, and ask no more than complicitous silence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pierre-bourdieu/the-most-successful-ideological-effects-are-those-which-have-no-need/) [Pierre Bourdieu](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) [Explore all 38 Pierre Bourdieu quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pierre-bourdieu/) ## More Economics quotes > [Don't let's lose sight of what creates wealth. It is open markets, it is capitalism.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rupert-murdoch/don-t-let-s-lose-sight-of-what-creates-wealth-it-is-open-markets-it/) [Rupert Murdoch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rupert-murdoch/) > [Crony capitalism is essentially a condition in which... public officials are giving favours to people in the private sector in payment of political favours.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-greenspan/crony-capitalism-is-essentially-a-condition-in-which-public-officials/) [Alan Greenspan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-greenspan/) > [Our biggest challenge is to eliminate the popular perception that economists don't have anything useful to say.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-zandi/our-biggest-challenge-is-to-eliminate-the-popular-perception-that/) [Mark Zandi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-zandi/) > [Advances in technology will continue to reach far into every sector of our economy. Future job and economic growth in industry, defense, transportation, agriculture,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-bond/advances-in-technology-will-continue-to-reach-far-into-every-sector/) [Christopher Bond](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-bond/) > [Our engagement through international economics, trade, these trade agreements, is vital and is linked to our national security. This is a lesson we learned…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-boustany/our-engagement-through-international-economics-trade-these-trade/) [Charles Boustany](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-boustany/) > [“The free-market economy and globalisation process have brought about, in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, a sharp and sudden rise in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/yaakov-malkin/the-free-market-economy-and-globalisation-process-have-brought-about/) [Yaakov Malkin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/yaakov-malkin/) > [Politics is about power. It is about the power of the state. It is about the power of the state as applied to individuals,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-rudd/politics-is-about-power-it-is-about-the-power-of-the-state-it-is/) [Kevin Rudd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-rudd/) > [Having an economy that works for the 99% is achievable.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/winnie-byanyima/having-an-economy-that-works-for-the-99-is-achievable/) [Winnie Byanyima](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/winnie-byanyima/) > [“a select group of high-performing companies have managed to close the strategy-to-performance gap through better planning and execution. These companies—Barclays, Cisco Systems, Dow Chemical,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-c-mankins/a-select-group-of-high-performing-companies-have-managed-to-close-the/) [Michael C. Mankins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-c-mankins/) > [The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-august-von-hayek/the-system-of-private-property-is-the-most-important-guaranty-of/) [Friedrich August von Hayek](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-august-von-hayek/) > [Economists think about what people ought to do. Psychologists watch what they actually do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-kahneman/economists-think-about-what-people-ought-to-do-psychologists-watch/) [Daniel Kahneman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-kahneman/) > [The politician attempts to remedy the evil by increasing the very thing that caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederic-bastiat/the-politician-attempts-to-remedy-the-evil-by-increasing-the-very/) [Frederic Bastiat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederic-bastiat/) > [“Economists have a singular method of procedure. There are only two kinds of institutions for them, artificial and natural. The institutions of feudalism are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karl-marx/economists-have-a-singular-method-of-procedure-there-are-only-two/) [Karl Marx](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karl-marx/) > [As the variable capital always stays in the hands of the capitalist in some form or other, it cannot be claimed in any way…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karl-marx/as-the-variable-capital-always-stays-in-the-hands-of-the-capitalist/) [Karl Marx](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karl-marx/) > [Right now, the government is spending billions of dollars supporting the problem-makers in the U.S. economy - the polluters, despoilers, incarcerators, and warmongers.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/van-jones/right-now-the-government-is-spending-billions-of-dollars-supporting/) [Van Jones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/van-jones/) [Browse all 7,788 Economics quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/economics/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Everything economic science posits as given, that is, the range of dispositions of the economic agent which ground the illusion of the ahistorical universality of the categories and concepts employed by that science, is, in fact, the paradoxical product of a long collective history, endlessly reproduced in individual histories, which can be fully accounted for only by historical analysis: it is because history has inscribed these concomitantly in social and cognitive structures, practical patterns of thinking, perception and action, that it has conferred the appearance of natural, universal self-evidence on the institutions economics claims to theorize ahistorically; it has done this by, among other things, the amnesia of genesis that is encouraged, in this field as in others, by the immediate accord between the ‘subjective’ and the ‘objective’, between dispositions and positions, between anticipations (or hopes) and opportunities. Against the ahistorical vision of economics, we must, then, reconstitute, on the one hand, the genesis of the economic dispositions of economic agents and, especially, of their tastes, needs, propensities or aptitudes (for calculation, saving or work itself) and, on the other, the genesis of the economic field itself, that is to say, we must trace the history of the process of differentiation and autonomization which leads to the constitution of this specific game: the economic field as a cosmos obeying its own laws and thereby conferring a (limited) validity on the radical autonomization which pure theory effects by constituting the economic sphere as a separate world. It was only very gradually that the sphere of commodity exchange separated itself out from the other fields of existence and its specific nomos asserted itself – the nomos expressed in the tautology ‘business is business’; that economic transactions ceased to be conceived on the model of domestic exchanges, and hence as governed by social or family obligations (‘there’s no sentiment in business’); and that the calculation of individual gain, and hence economic interest, won out as the dominant, if not indeed exclusive, principle of business against the collectively imposed and controlled repression of calculating inclinations associated with the domestic economy. 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