Economic Methodology Understanding Economics as a Science

Economic methodology was formally recognized as a field of economic inquiry in the 1980s, asn was heavily influenced by currents in the philosophy of science, particularly by the reaction against logical positivism as exemplified in the writings of Popper, Kuhn and Lakatos. The authors, bringing to bear a wealth of research and teaching experience, situate the field within the broader philosophy of science tradition. They explore the key refinements to, and extensions and departures from, the field in order to understand issues prevalent in the economic domain.

JOHN B. DAVIS is Professor of History and Philosophy of Economics and Co-director of the faculty research programme 'Methodology and History of Economics' at the University of Amsterdam and Professor of Economics at Marquette University, USA.
 
MARCEL BOUMANS is Associate Professor and Co-director of the faculty research programme 'Methodology and History of Economics' at the University of Amsterdam.

The Received View of Science

Focus 1.1 Axiomatization - Focus 1.2 Models - Focus 1.3 Formalism

Methodologies of Positive Economics

Focus 2.1 Methodologies before Friedman - Focus 2.2 Measurement - Focus 2.3 Experiments

Popper’s Logic of Discovery

Focus 3.1 The Duhem-Quine Thesis - Focus 3.2 Popper’s Situational Analysis - Focus 3.3 Testing

Kuhn and Lakatos

Focus 4.1 Research Programs in Economics - Focus 4.2 Scientific Revolutions in Economics? - Focus 4.3 Facts

The Sociology of Scientific Knowledge

Focus 5.1 Economics as a Discipline - Focus 5.2 Case Study Research - Focus 5.3 Feminist Philosophy of Science and Feminist

Political Economy

Rhetoric, Postmodernism, and Pluralism

Focus 6.1 Analogy and Metaphor - Focus 6.2 Paul Feyerabend - Focus 6.3 Realism and Causal Explanation in Economics

Value Judgements in Economics

Focus 7.1 Logical Positivism and Ordinalist Utility Theory- Focus 7.2 Neutral Science? - Focus 7.3 Naturalistic Legitimation