Re: Principles of Economic Analysis

["Harry Veeder" <veed0001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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>From: "Gunnar Tomasson" <tomasson@xxxxxxxx>
>To: POST-KEYNESIAN THOUGHT <pkt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Principles of Economic Analysis
>Date: Mon, Feb 21, 2000, 1:40 am
>

<snip>
>This accorded with Friedman's view that "Logical completeness and
>consistency are relevant but play a subsidiary role" in all "theory", as he
>put it in 'The Methodology of Positive Economics' (p. 10).  In other words,
>whatever Friedman may mean by "theory", it cannot have anything to do with
>the classical concept of 'The Theory of Economics'.
>
> For, as Keynes summarized it in 1922, "The Theory of Economics does not
>furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to a policy.
>It
>is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique of
>thinking, which helps its possessor to draw correct conclusions."
<snip>

Drawing correct conculsions is pointless if we don't know if the premises
(the axioms) are realistic. We should take Keynes emphasis on "thinking"
with a grain of salt, otherwise we will never bother to assess the realism
of his premises.

Harry Veeder