ABSTRACT
The most significant contribution of the growth of knowledge philosophers was the demonstration that the quest for a single, universal, prescriptive scientific methodology is quixotic. Confirmationism provides no logically compelling algorithm of choice. Instrumentalism is viable only in those situations in which predictive adequacy is the sole goal. And Popper’s falsificationism, though it recognizes the problem of induction and seeks only to eliminate error, runs into problems in application when interpreted strictly, and loses prescriptive force when interpreted loosely. That these philosophical matters have direct application in economics was demonstrated in the last chapter.
