ABSTRACT
Mathematical models share the nature of parables, not so much in their logical structure as in the interpretations given to them in intuitive discourse to enlighten their heuristic function. In contemporary theorising the scope for such use of parables has opened out as a consequence of the free application of mathematical modelling in conceptual experiments regarding fictional worlds. The relationship of such conceptual experiments to the description and interpretation of real events is loose and the procedure of interpretation is left uncodified. However, the epistemological function of parables and metaphors in economic theory is far from being clarified. Be it overt or covert, it is often masked by the still dominant scientist rhetoric maintaining that scientific explanation is to be based on general principles and the reduction of individual events to the realm of general laws. Scientific languages proceed by generalisations, establishing broad relations among classes of phenomena or abstract ideas and concepts.
