Re: Economic Science [Was: Re: The Widow's Cruse

["William B. Ryan" <william_b_ryan@xxxxxxxxx>]

Gunnar, I've archived at
http://www.geocities.com/new_economics/keynes-1938.txt
Keynes' 1938 letter where he says that economics is a
"branch of logic" by which he means "way of
thinking."  Now, that statement from Keynes is
something quite different than saying that economics
is a branch of *formal* logic flowing from a given
set of axioms.  That's why we always have to look at
the contexts from which specific statements are
plucked that are used to make a case.  Keeping it in
isolation has allowed you to put a completely
different spin on it than Keynes intended, over the
last three years or so you have been pushing this
line to the readers of this list.

You've gone so far as saying it doesn't matter what
axioms you start with--certainly that is my
impression from your responses to my various
challenges--because they are "self-evident," that
everything that we need to know about economics may
be concluded by applying the "rules of logic" to that
given set of axioms through the "method of analysis."
I am curious as to how you differentiate your
specific approach from that which the "Austrians"
like Mises (Schumpeter is in the Austrian tradition)
call *parxeology*.  I must say the Austrians have
several e-lists that might be more amenable to you
than the list we are now on.  What Keynes says below
would appear to bring empiricism into play, something
that is abhorrent to praxeologists--and yourself.

>From Keynes' letter:

***|But one cannot get very far except by devising
new and improved models. This requires, as you say,
'a vigilant observation of the actual working of our
system'.  Progress in economics consists almost
entirely in a progressive improvement in the choice
of models...Economics is a science of thinking in
terms of models joined to the art of choosing models
which are relevant to the contemporary world.|***

What do you say to this?  Surely you will admit this
does put a different "spin" on the matter, right?

Bill




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