Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Relevance and falsification
- 2 Rational economic man
- 3 Theory and hypothesis
- 4 Facts and theories
- 5 Behaviour and prediction
- 6 A priori knowledge
- 7 Deductive explanation
- 8 The assumptions of neo-Classicism
- 9 Rationalist foundations for economic theory
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - Relevance and falsification
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Relevance and falsification
- 2 Rational economic man
- 3 Theory and hypothesis
- 4 Facts and theories
- 5 Behaviour and prediction
- 6 A priori knowledge
- 7 Deductive explanation
- 8 The assumptions of neo-Classicism
- 9 Rationalist foundations for economic theory
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The winds of change have been unkind to Positivism. Few professional philosophers in Britain and fairly few in America still avow it. Instead they practise what Milton calls ‘a fugitive and cloistered virtue’, currently known as Linguistic or Conceptual Analysis. This style of philosophising is antiimperialist and neither has nor will make much impact on economic theory. Over the entrance to the cloister is written ‘Il faut cultiver nos jardins’.
Positivism and current economic disputes
Positivism is neither fugitive nor cloistered. It demands a say in the councils of the world both where theorists meet and where scientists go to work. Wielding the analytic-synthetic distinction, it dismisses the wisdom of the ages as metaphysical rubbish. It makes a difference to all enquiry. For, if it is well-founded, science is to be done in one way; if ill-founded, in another. Its contempt for habitual thought is vented not only against a priori speculation but also against ordinary language. For, since we choose what our words are to mean, the fact that language is used in a certain way never shows that it ought to be so used. Bertrand Russell has remarked that ordinary language embodies the metaphysics of the Stone Age. A positivist is likely to agree. Such cavalier tones are not for the cloister.
To cultivate a philosophical garden for its own sake is ultimately pointless. For what grows is only what is planted and the lesson of many centuries is Export or Die. We shall here support the Positivist belief that philosophy makes a difference. But Positivism makes the wrong difference.
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- Information
- Rational Economic Man , pp. 22 - 46Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1975