Economics for Real
Modern economics abounds with complicated mathematical models that use a variety of unrealistic assumptions. This raises the question of whether economists are studying the economy for real. Are economists aiming at the truth at all, or are they merely playing intellectual games? Uskali Mäki, a pioneering philosopher of economics, has offered a way of understanding such modeling practices that is, perhaps surprisingly, based on the idea that some unrealistic assumptions are necessary for getting to the truth in economics.
Mäki has formulated his ideas in terms of the ‘method of isolation’ which is naturally related to his scientific realist approach to economic methodology. He has thus shown how economic theories may aim at ...
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