ABSTRACT
My 1981 paper is about how the neoclassical maximization hypothesis is used. … The point of my argument is that the proponent of neoclassical economics can always avoid any claimed refutation (the existence of a function V which does violate at least one of the axioms of consumer theory) by asserting the existence of some other function V which does not violate the axioms. This strategy immunizes the neoclassical hypothesis from refutation even when it is falseand regardless of whether the axiom is falsifiable. The question is not whether the statement of the maximization hypothesis is falsifiable but whether the immunization strategy can ever be defeated!
