Popperian Epistemology in Economics: The Alpha-Beta Method

Adolfo Figueroa

Chapter Chapter 1 in Growth, Employment, Inequality, and the Environment, 2015, pp 3-25 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Why has the progress of scientific knowledge in economics proceeded at a pace that is slower than that of the natural sciences? A possible reason is the limitation of data, in quantity and quality; in addition, the instruments of measurement for the social phenomena are relatively imperfect. The other reason seems to rest upon the role of methodology in the construction of scientific knowledge in economics. Compared to physics, economics seeks to explain the functioning of the social world, which is a much more complex world than the physical world; one may then propose the principle that understanding more complex worlds, such as the social world, is more demanding on methodology than understanding the physical world.

Keywords: Scientific Knowledge; Scientific Theory; Exogenous Variable; Human Society; Endogenous Variable (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-50267-4_1

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137502674

DOI: 10.1057/9781137502674_1

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().