Truth and Progress in Economic Knowledge

Download or read book Truth and Progress in Economic Knowledge written by Roger Backhouse and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 1997 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Backhouse (history and philosophy of economics, U. of Birmingham, England) believes in truth and progress, but defends them against postmodern skepticism by using some of the same sources it does rather than trying to return to a pre-lapsarian state. He concludes by doubting the success of the conventional division of labor in which economic theorists transmute general assumptions into hypotheses to be tested, and econometricians test those theories statistically and establish empirical generalizations. Those two functions, he says, must interact on a much more intimate level. Some of the material is revised from previous publication. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR