Quit lying and address the controversies: there are no dogmata, laws, rules or standards in the science of economics

William Becker

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: As with other sciences, the author argues that there are no unquestionable ideas in economics, and attempts to impose "No Child Left Behind" K-12 type "technical standards" in universities will turn higher education in economics into remedial education. Students need to learn that the very nature of a science is to have unresolved topics and an on-going scrutiny of theories no matter how steeped they are in tradition. He provides examples to show how the dumbing down of economics to the dogmatic preaching of a few simple concepts, principles, and axioms of old misses the excitement of modern day economics and is a deceitful representation of the science of economics and a disservice to students seeking a higher education.

Keywords: teaching economics; economics education (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Published in American Economist 1.51(2007): pp. 3-14

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/39958/1/MPRA_paper_39958.pdf original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Quit Lying and Address the Controversies: There are No Dogmata, Laws, Rules or Standards in the Science of Economics (2007)
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:pra:mprapa:39958

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().