The neoclassical definition of rationality, though continuously and consistently debated, has remained the cornerstone of economics for decades. How do current developments in areas ranging from finance to the natural sciences, necessitate and facilitate a departure from this paradigm?

Lord Skidelsky is Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at the University of Warwick. He is best known as the author of a multi-volume biography of John Maynard Keynes. Skidelsky is a member of the cross benches and frequently writes columns for newspapers and magazines such as the Financial Times, the Economist or the New York Times. In response to the financial crisis he published the book Keynes: The Return of the Master in September 2009.

The recent economic collapse has produced widespread dissatisfaction with the state of economics and calls for changes in the way economics is taught at universities and business schools.

Recently there has been an increasing tendency to incorporate in economic theory, as Keynes once did, the great variety of norms that determine human behavior, expanding the ‚homo economicus assumptions‘. Identity and the role of social networks have hence increasingly featured in economic discussions.

While acclaimed scientists receive most of the attention, evidence suggests that it is their younger and still unknown colleagues who make the most significant contributions to science, thus challenging the “quest for truth”. Anarchy in science – a suitable response?

Tony Lawson is Professor of Economics at Cambridge University. He has contributed in various areas including Economic Methodology, Heterodox Economics, Evolutionary Economics and Feminist Economics, yet his focus lies on Ontology, in particular on Social Ontology. Lawson is a mathematician by training – and a severe critic of the way mathematics is used in economics. He has published in numerous journals and is author of the books Economics and Reality (1997) and Reorienting Economics (2003). A recent overview of his contributions can be found In Edward Fullbrook’s recent edited collection Economics and Ontology: Tony Lawson and His Critics (2009). Lawson is a founder of the Cambridge Realist Workshop and the Cambridge Social Ontology Group and sits on various editorial boards including the Cambridge Journal of Economics.