ABSTRACT
Modern economics is instead dominated by neoclassical economics, which is based on a view that the economy being explained is the result of decisions made by people acting individually in the pursuit of their own interest. The study of the methodology of neoclassical economics will involve the recognition of an uncommon distinction — one between how methodology is practiced by economic theorists and model builders and the methodology they presume is practiced by the typical economic agent whose behavior they wish to explain. The few mainstream economists who might have an interest in studying the methodology of economics also think we should always begin by consulting philosophers of economics. Unfortunately, philosophers of economics are too often concerned with the philosophical question of whether economics is a science, that is, a science like physics or chemistry.
