Truth and Progress in Economic Knowledge

Roger E. Backhouse, Professor of the History and Philosophy of Economics, University of Birmingham, UK

• Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Why Methodology? 3. Postmodernism and Methodology, I: Exposition 4. Postmodernism and Methodology, II: Criticism 5. A Historical Perspective on Science 6. The Pragmatist Tradition 7. The Popperian Tradition 8. The Concept of Progress 9. Is Economics an Empirical Science? 10. Theoretical Progress in Economics 11. Econometrics and the Establishment of Economic Facts 12. Econometrics and Testing Economic Theories 13. Economic Theory, Empirical Evidence and Progress in Economics References Index

'This excellent book is written by someone who understands the many shortcomings of modern economics, while not being persuaded by the excesses of post-modern critiques. Nor is he despairing of the possibilities of genuine progress in the subject, no matter how difficult in principle, and halting in practice, his own analysis shows it to be. Backhouse provides a well-balanced discussion of economists' debates on the meaning of knowledge and progress in their subject and of how they go about trying to advance these. . . . What it does provide is a thoughtful read for anyone interested in issues concerning economic knowledge. The arguments are well structured, the language is clear, and the organisation is methodical - almost at the text book level, with subheadings and numbered points. . . . This book should be required reading for all those students of economics before they are turned loose to practice their powerful but imprecise art, which is potentially valuable and dangerous in almost equal proportions.'