ABSTRACT

The past two decades have witnessed an explosive growth in the literature on economic methodology. This has taken the form of specialized monographs, general introductory surveys, anthologies and the emergence of new journals devoted to the field. Over the same period there has also been a preoccupation with the general state of economics as a scientific discipline and profession. As noted by Coats (1986a) these two issues, economic methodology and the general state of economics, are strictly speaking distinct. Economic methodology represents a sub-set of general methodology, which is an integral part of philosophy. The agenda of economic methodology may appear far removed from the concerns of the practising economist. This distance from the practising economist is well captured in the following quotation:

Methodology is like medicine. We tolerate it because it is supposed to be good for us, but secretly despise it. We would rather prescribe it for others than use it ourselves. The study of methodology takes place in a shadowy other-world, and its few participants are accepted as eccentrics. Only occasionally do our philosophical norms and our day-to-day practice clash head-on. For the most part we are too busy pushing out the frontiers of knowledge to question whether those frontiers are of any significance.