When McCloskey meets Latour: changing the perspectives on the debates about Rhetoric in Economics

Abstract

This paper rescues Deirdre McCloskey’s ideas about Rhetoric in Economics
and some issues left out in subsequent discussions. There is a parallel between the ideas
of McCloskey and Bruno Latour, and the complementarities of their perspectives are very
relevant for the development of Economics. Some reflections are here offered to improve the
practice of Economics, which are related to the social constructions of facts in the field, to
the internalization of political aspects, and to the importance of alternating between fact and
fiction in a dynamic that does not result in a zero-sum game, underlining the characteristic of
Economics as being inherently rhetorical.

JEL Classification: B40; B25.