IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/uwe/wpaper/0402.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

'Open-Systems' and Economic Methodology

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew Mearman

    (School of Economics, University of the West of England)

Abstract

This paper discusses some of the methodological implications of an ‘open-systems’ reality. It presents a possible ontology of open systems which draws on various literatures including, but not limited to, Critical Realism. The paper then extrapolates from the ontology to a set of methodological arguments. Many methods in economics presuppose a degree of closure in their operation. Deductive logic is discussed in this context. This constitutes a disjuncture with reality. It could be argued, therefore, that these methods should be rejected. However, an open-systems methodology is also an open system and it will reflect the impact of other literatures. Thus, based on fallibilism and an avoidance of dualism (in Dow’s terms) rejection of so-called ‘closed-systems methods’ is not an option. Also, given the preponderance of closures in available methods, this would leave little scope for investigation. Thus, a strategy of triangulation should be adopted.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew Mearman, 2004. "'Open-Systems' and Economic Methodology," Working Papers 0402, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwe:wpaper:0402
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://carecon.org.uk/DPs/0402.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2004
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Annina Kaltenbrunner, 2018. "Financialised internationalisation and structural hierarchies: a mixed-method study of exchange rate determination in emerging economies," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 42(5), pages 1315-1341.
    2. Paul Downward & Andrew Mearman, 2005. "Methodological Triangulation at the Bank of England:An Investigation," Working Papers 0505, Department of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol.
    3. Paul Downward & Andrew Mearman, 2008. "Decision-making at the Bank of England: a critical appraisal," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 60(3), pages 385-409, July.
    4. Andrew Mearman, 2008. "Pluralism and Heterodoxy: Introduction to the Special Issue," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 1(2), pages 5-25, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    methodology; open-systems; triangulation; Critical Realism; deduction; dualism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology
    • B5 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches
    • P0 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:uwe:wpaper:0402. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Jo Michell (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/seuweuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.