Friedman’s Methodology: A Puzzle and A Proposal for Generating Useful Debates through Causal Comparisons (with a postscript on positive vs. normative theories)
Abstract
Milton Friedman’s “The Methodology of Positive Economies” is still one of the most widely read pieces on economic methodology. One reason for this might be Friedman’s attractive proposal that economists use theories and hypotheses as pragmatic devices to summarize data and make predictions over the relevant range of observations. Logically, this should lead to a fair minded comparison among many contending theories. However, Friedman's actual examples and discussion of these examples raise a puzzle. The field of comparison seems unduly narrow from the beginning. In my attempt to resolve this, I consider some logical and ontological problems for Friedman's position. I end up by suggesting a scientific realist approach to testing theories by causal comparisons over a wide field of contending theories.Download Info
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Paper provided by University Library of Munich, Germany in its series MPRA Paper with number 7457.Length:
Date of creation: Mar 2008
Date of revision: Mar 2008
Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:7457
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Related research
Keywords: Positive theory; Normative Theory; Predictability; Scientific Realism; Causal Depth; Causal Comparisons;Other versions of this item:
- Khan, Haider, 2008. "Friedman’s Methodology: A Puzzle and A Proposal for Generating Useful Debates through Causal Comparisons (with a postscript on positive vs. normative theories)," MPRA Paper 7458, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Mar 2008.
- B10 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - General
- B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
- A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
- B00 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - General - - - History of Economic Thought, Methodology, and Heterodox Approaches
- B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2008-03-15 (All new papers)
- NEP-HPE-2008-03-15 (History & Philosophy of Economics)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Kevin Hoover, 2004.
"Milton Friedman’s Stance: The Methodology of Causal Realism,"
Working Papers
66, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
- Hoover, Kevin D., 2004. "Milton Friedman's Stance: The Methodology of Causal Realism," Working Papers 06-6, University of California at Davis, Department of Economics.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Mejía Cubillos, Javier, 2012.
"Ética y Justicia. Reflexiones a partir de The Idea of Justice de Amartya Sen
[Ethics and justice. Reflections on The Idea of Justice by Amartya Sen]," MPRA Paper 37458, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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