1.2 — What Exactly is Economics? — Class Notes

Required Readings:

• NONE

Recommended Readings:

This week we will be covering elements of:

• Ch.1 (Introduction) in Landreth and Colander
• Preface & Ch.17 (Methodological Postscript) in Blaug 1996

Other helpful readings:

• Blaug, 1975, “Kuhn versus Lakatos, or paradigms versus research programmes in the history of economics”
• McCloskey, 1998, The Rhetoric of Economics pp.20-28

The following Wikipedia entries can also provide more background on the philosophy of science (broadly in order):

• Philosophy of Science
• Positivism
• Logical Positivism
• Karl Popper
• Thomas Kuhn
• Imre Lakatos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imre_Lakatos
• Lionel Robbins on Economics
• Milton Friedman on Positivist Methodology