Ontology and Economics

Edward Fullbrook is the founder and editor of the Real-World Economics Review and a research fellow in the School of Economics at the University of the West of England.

• Foreword (Tony Lawson) Introduction: Lawson's Reorientation (Edward Fullbrook) 1. Some comments on Lawson’s Reorienting Economics: same facts, different conclusions (Bruce Caldwell) 2. History, causal explanation and "basic economic reasoning": reply to Caldwell (Tony Lawson) 3. Critical Realism in Economics (Bjørn-Ivar Davidsen) 4. Underlabouring for substantive theorizing: reply to Davidsen (Tony Lawson) 5. The Nature of Heterodox Economics (John B. Davis) 6. Heterodox Economics and Pluralism: reply to Davis (Tony Lawson) 7. Reorienting Economics Through Triangulation of Methods (Paul Downward and Andrew Mearman) 8. Triangulation and social research: reply to Downward and Mearman (Tony Lawson) 9. Irrelevance and Ideology (Bernard Guerrien) 10. The mainstream orientation and ideology: reply to Guerrien (Tony Lawson) 11. On the problem of formalism in economics (Geoffrey M. Hodgson) 12. On the nature and rules of formalism in economics: reply to Hodgson (Tony Lawson) 13. Finding a critical pragmatism in Reorienting Economics (Bruce R. McFarling) 14. Ontology or epistemology?: reply to McFarling (Tony Lawson) 15. (Un)Real Criticism (David Ruccio) 16. Ontology and postmodernism: reply to Ruccio (Tony Lawson) 17. Feminism and Realism (Irene van Staveren) 18. Feminism, Realism and Essentialism: reply to van Staveren (Tony Lawson) 19. Conjectural revisionary ontology (Jack Vromen) 20. Provisionally grounded critical ontology: reply to Vromen (Tony Lawson)

"Tony Lawson is famous for being the most powerful and effective critic of mainstream economics. His criticism is made more effective by the fact that he has an alternative conception of economics and indeed the rest of the social sciences, a conception deriving from his ontological theorising. This volume gives eleven important writers from a variety of fields and points of view within economics a chance to appraise Lawson's work; and with his replies the reader gets a deeper sense of Lawson's point of view and achievement."John Searle, Slusser Professor of Philosophy, University of California at Berkeley "Over the past 15 years, Tony Lawson's prosecution of a programme to establish a field of social ontology has inspired leading post-positivist economists to think anew about the ends, means, and possibilities of economics as a social science. Much constructive dialogue and debate has been generated and Ontology and Economics chronicles and extends these probing dialogues. Lawson's fans and critics, and first-timers looking for a colourful snapshot of the realist movement in contemporary economics, will find this an immensely rewarding read."Rob Garnett, Texas Christian University, USA"This collection of essays between Tony Lawson and his critics is an important contribution to the ongoing critical discourse on ontology, realism and heterodox economics. While the critics do have their say, Lawson's responses convincingly demonstrate that his project in social ontology not only makes a significant contribution to heterodox economics but also is indispensable for its future development."Frederic S. Lee, Professor of Economics, University of Missouri-Kansas City, USA