Economic methodology : understanding economics as a science / Marcel Boumans and John B. Davis ; with contributions from Mark Blaug, Harro Maas, and Andrej Svorencik.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

The Received View of Science -- Focus 1.1 Axiomatization -- Focus 1.2 Models -- Focus 1.3 Formalism -- Methodologies of Positive Economics -- Focus 2.1 Methodologies before Friedman -- Focus 2.2 Measurement -- Focus 2.3 Experiments -- Popper's Logic of Discovery -- Focus 3.1 The Duhem-Quine Thesis -- Focus 3.2 Popper's Situational Analysis -- Focus 3.3 Testing -- Kuhn and Lakatos -- Focus 4.1 Research Programs in Economics -- Focus 4.2 Scientific Revolutions in Economics? -- Focus 4.3 Facts -- The Sociology of Scientific Knowledge -- Focus 5.1 Economics as a Discipline -- Focus 5.2 Case Study Research -- Focus 5.3 Feminist Philosophy of Science and Feminist Political Economy -- Rhetoric, Postmodernism, and Pluralism -- Focus 6.1 Analogy and Metaphor -- Focus 6.2 Paul Feyerabend -- Focus 6.3 Realism and Causal Explanation in Economics Value Judgements in Economics -- Focus 7.1 Logical Positivism and Ordinalist Utility Theory -- Focus 7.2 Neutral Science? -- Focus 7.3 Naturalistic Legitimation -- Glossary.

Like other sciences, the study of economics has been shaped by rigorous arguments and debates that continue to influence economists. In this fascinating introduction, the authors consider the scientific nature of the methods, logic, and forms of explanation that underlie economics as a discipline.

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