Economic methodology, the philosophy of economics and the economy: another turn?

Abstract

ABSTRACT This contribution considers how economic methodology and the philosophy of economics have evolved in the light of real experience in the economy. Philosophical and methodological discourse about economics has extended to the student movement and to the public arena as a result of the various recent crises facing the economy and society, and of economists’ response. This discourse has drawn particularly on heterodox philosophical/methodological analysis, which has continued to develop both within and beyond the specialist literature. There has been an increasing focus on issues surrounding pluralism and the orthodoxy/heterodoxy distinction. Following a discussion of these developments a parallel is drawn between evolution of the fields of methodology/philosophy of economics on the one hand and the history of economic thought on the other.