ABSTRACT
How are the problems and failings of modern economics to be explained and resolved? The answer developed here is that these problems: (1) result ultimately from a widespread, rather uncritical, reliance by economists upon a questionable conception of science and explanation; and (2) can be resolved through replacing this conception with a more adequate one, derived by way of adopting an explicitly realist orientation. The next few chapters are concerned with elaborating upon this 'answer'. In the process I indicate just how adopting a realist orientation (in the sense understood here) can facilitate a more relevant economics than is currently available or is even possible within the confines of the explanatory norms and criteria of the contemporary economics discipline. It is not until Chapter 4, however, that I deal fully with the problems and/or inconsistencies just noted.
