Pluralism in Economics

Pluralism in Economics sheds new light on the various meanings and consequences of pluralist approaches to the history and methodology of economics. The first part focuses on philosophical and methodological issues. The second part contains six case studies which discuss diverse issues but adopt the pluralistic approach recommended in the first part.The contributors attempt to reconcile two major strands of thinking in economic methodology: the 'rhetoric' of economics as advocated by Deirdre McCloskey and the sociological approach which argues that scientific knowledge can be best analysed in the context of a sociological understanding of the scientific enterprise.The book has been prepared under the auspices of the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy and presents new work by leading economists from both Europe and North America.