Kinds of Assumptions and Their Truth: Shaking an Untwisted F-Twist

Uskali Maki

Kyklos, 2000, vol. 53, issue 3, pages 317-36

Abstract: In an insightful article published in this journal, Alan Musgrave (1981) has argued that once we distinguish between three kinds of assumptions, Milton Friedman's F-twist--according to which the truth of the assumptions of an economic theory is irrelevant to its acceptability--can be untwisted. It is shown that once we bring in more clarity on the formal identity of the different kinds of assumptions, Musgrave's contribution can be further refined: distinctions can be drawn between detectability and negligibility assumptions, and between domain and applicability assumptions; the suggested gap between as-if assumptions and other kinds can be removed; another type, that of joint negligibility assumption, can be introduced; the untwisting of the F-twist can be accepted in all cases except in the case of early-step (heuristic) assumptions; and the art of paraphrase is shown to constitute the basis for Musgrave's strategy and to have limits. Copyright 2000 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG

Date: 2000
View citations in EconPapers

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:53:y:2000:i:3:p:317-36

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0023-5962

Access Statistics for this article

Kyklos is edited by Rene L. Frey

More articles in Kyklos from Blackwell Publishing
Series data maintained by Christopher F. Baum ().