ABSTRACT
In the latter half of the twentieth century economics has come to be regarded as a science little different in its use of scientific methods from the longer established natural sciences. In good part this has been due to economists’ adoption of sophisticated mathematical models and state-of-the-art econometric techniques that permit empirical testing of formally expressed causal relationships. Science since Newton has been understood to be mathematical in nature, and good science has for an even longer time depended upon evaluating theory according to its ability to explain and predict observable events. But is economic behavior truly governed by causal laws? The foundation of modern economics is the theory of individual choice, and while we say that circumstances often occasion the choices individuals make, it seems inappropriate to make the stronger claim that choices are actually caused. Given this, it seems odd that economic behavior is modeled in terms of relationships between independent and dependent variables, where the former cause or bring about the latter. Indeed one might go so far as to say that the reliance on mathematical functions to represent human behavior is a misuse of mathematics, and that economics should return to an earlier practice of producing more descriptive, qualitative analysis.1
