Unfortunately, Schumpeter never did clarify what he meant by "economic phenomena." He recognized, moreover, the difficulty and renounced any explanation of what an economic fact or phenomenon might be. Schumpeter wrote: "Our closest approach to doing so will consist in the enumeration presented below of the main 'fields' now recognized in teaching practice. But even this epideiktic definition must be understood to carry no claim to completeness" (1954: 10).