ABSTRACT
Modern academic economics is dominated by a mainstream tradition whose defining characteristic is an insistence that certain methods of mathematical modelling be more or less always employed in the analysis of economic phenomena, and are so in conditions for which they are not suitable. Elsewhere have put forward an explanation of the noted academic malaise that draws significantly on ontological theorising, that is on theorising the nature of reality. Many heterodox economists clearly demur, and most of these seemingly hold to the view that a superior explanation of the state of modern economics is provided by focusing on the prevalence of a form of political-economic ideology. In this sense, neoclassical economics clearly qualifies as an ideology and as such is more specific and precise than the political ideologies mentioned. Also, the pattern of behaviour in question seems to be gendered, with the mathematical modelling and prediction activities being relentlessly pursued largely by gendered males.
