ABSTRACT
In this chapter I consider neoclassical economics as a piece of figurative speech that economists have borrowed, knowingly or otherwise, from art history and philosophy, and assert ten propositions about it. I discuss the diversity of meanings that have been attributed to neoclassical economics by lexicographers, historians of economic thought and economists, including Tony Lawson (Chapter 1). I conclude that the term need not be abandoned, as Lawson and others have maintained, and that some important and interesting questions about its use remain open for future research.
