AN INQUIRY INTO THE FOUNDATIONS AND LIMITS OF ECONOMIC SCIENCE

Abstract

Due to the rejection of mainstream equilibrium methods, recent decades have seen a renewed interest in the epistemology and methods of economic science. This paper attempts to lay the epistemological foundations for a realist approach to economic phenomena, based both on recent developments in the philosophy of science and on traditional philosophical positions. Then, upon these foundations, it highlights the importance of the subjective nature of economic phenomena and the role of action as the basic ontological reality of the social realm. Based upon these considerations, an aprioristic-deductive method is developed, which begins with the basic categories of action, and slowly adds on to the chains of deductions empirical assumptions about the conditions under which action takes place. Finally, various critiques are leveled against some erroneous doctrines about the nature of economics and scientific knowledge, and a few additional philosophical considerations are examined.