Terence Hutchison's 1938 essay has been variously interpreted as introducing
positivism, ultra-empiricism, and Popperian falsificationism into economics. Given
Popper's well known anti-positivist stance, this state of affairs may seem puzzling. It
might be presumed either that contradictions of some kind are involved in
Hutchison's position, or that Popper's stance is not so far removed from logical
positivism after all. In tins thesis the latter option is adopted and Popper and logical
positivism is viewed as part of a wider 'logical reconstructionist' pre-Quinean
philosophy of science. Yet this move may not, and should not, resolve all disquietude
on the part of the reader. For, to the extent that Hutchison adopted those aspects of
Popper which clashed with logical positivism, there is an inherent contradiction
between the view that Hutchison introduced positivism and the view that he
introduced Popper into economics.
This provides us with the springboard we need for our thesis. For the contradiction is
resolved once these views are recognised as turning Hutchison into a straw man. In
the weak version of our thesis we argue that there has been an overemphasis on the
positivist and Popperian elements in Hutchison's essay and a neglect of the extent to
which it is concerned with economic methodology. In the strong version of our thesis
we argue that Hutchison's essay is best viewed as a modern restatement of the
inductivist-empirical-historical, as opposed to the deductivist-apriorist-fonnalist,
approach in the long-standing methodenstreit in economics. In this restatement
Hutchison draws on various elements of positivism and Popper to support a position
that arises out of, and is specific to, the concerns of economic methodology, rather
than to promote any particular philosophy of science in economics.
Survey chapters on the philosophy of science with special emphasis on logical
positivism, and on aspects of the history of economic methodology, enable us to
evaluate the nature of Hutchison's essay and to substantiate our thesis. Thereafter we
highlight the shortcomings of the traditional interpretations of Hutchison's essay
pointing to how these have limited Hutchison's influence in economics. / Economics / D. Litt. et Phil. (Economics)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/693 |
| Date | 28 February 2002 |
| Creators | Hart, John Slater, 1954- |
| Contributors | Torr, Christopher |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (v, 289 leaves) |
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