0415323398.Routledge.Popper.and.Economic.Methodology.Dec.2003.pdf

Popper and Economic Methodology

It is generally acknowledged that Sir Karl Popper ‘had a greater inﬂ uence on

postwar economic methodology than any other single philosopher’ (Wade Hands,

2001). However, since his death in 1994, there has been widespread resistance

to Popper’s notion of critical rationalism, in the light of other twentieth century

developments in philosophy. Boylan and O’Gorman have gathered essays that

seek to reassess Popper’s contribution to the methodology of the social sciences

and in particular economics, in both a positive and negative fashion.

The particular Popperian themes addressed in this volume include: the three-

world thesis; the concept of rationality; his use of open-systems and his anti-

inductivism. These particular themes are critically analysed in the context of the

philosophy of economics. Arising from this analysis, it is argued that there is a

compelling need to acknowledge and re-evaluate the role of realism in Popperian

economic methodology. This has major implications for the construction of

models in economic theorising.

This book will be of great interest to students engaged with economic

methodology and the philosophy of economics, as well as anyone interested in

new readings of the work of Popper.

Thomas A. Boylan is Personal Professor of Economics in the Department of

Economics at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Paschal F. O’Gorman is Personal Professor of Philosophy in the Department of

Philosophy at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

Routledge INEM Advances in Economic Methodology

Series edited by Esther-Mirjam Sent, University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands

The ﬁ eld of economic methodology has expanded rapidly during the last few

decades. This expansion has occurred in part because of changes within the

discipline of economics, in part because of changes in the prevailing philosophical

conception of scientiﬁ c knowledge, and also because of various transformations

within the wider society. Research in economic methodology now reﬂ ects not

only developments in contemporary economic theory, the history of economic

thought, and the philosophy of science; but it also reﬂ ects developments in

science studies, historical epistemology, and social theorising more generally. The

ﬁ eld of economic methodology still includes the search for rules for the proper

conduct of economic science, but it also covers a vast array of other subjects and

accommodates a variety of different approaches to those subjects.

The objective of this series is to provide a forum for the publication of signiﬁ cant

works in the growing ﬁ eld of economic methodology. Since the series deﬁ nes

methodology quite broadly, it will publish books on a wide range of different

methodological subjects. The series is also open to a variety of different types of

works: original research monographs, edited collections, as well as republication of

signiﬁ cant earlier contributions to the methodological literature. The International

Network for Economic Methodology (INEM) is proud to sponsor this important

series of contributions to the methodological literature.

1 Foundations of Economic Method, 2nd edition

A Popperian perspective

Lawrence A. Boland

2 Applied Economics and the Critical Realist Critique

Edited by Paul Downward

3 Dewey, Pragmatism and Economic Methodology

Edited by Elias L. Khalil

4 How Economists Model the World into Numbers

Marcel Boumans

5 McCloskey’s Rhetoric

Discourse ethics in economics

Benjamin Balak

6 The Foundations of Paul Samuelson’s Revealed Preference Theory

A study by the method of rational reconstruction, revised edition

Stanley Wong

7 Economics and the Mind

Edited by Barbara Montero and Mark D. White

8 Error in Economics

Towards a more evidence-based methodology

Julian Reiss

9 Popper and Economic Methodology

Contemporary challenges

Edited by Thomas A. Boylan and Paschal F. O’Gorman

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