Sem Economic Methodology
Term:
Spring 2011
Subject Code:
GECO
Course Number:
6323
This seminar will cover classical and contemporary debates in the methodology of economics, focusing on questions about the status of economics in relation to ideology, natural science and policy formation; the philosophical foundations of economics (including positivism, realism, pragmatism, postmodernism and feminism); and the sociology of the economics profession, including the post-War rise in prominence of American economics. We will consider issues of power, ideology, rationality, individualism and embededness in assessing the epistemological status of claims in economic theory, including mathematical models and econometrics. Readings will include work by Hume, Mill, Marx, Kuhn, Popper, Lakatos, Friedman, Blaug, Mirowski, McCloskey, Lawson, Dow, Hodgson, Hands, Nelson and others.
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