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Article
Publication date: 10 August 2012

John Cameron and Karin Astrid Siegmann

In this paper the aim is to show how the translation of a logical positivist epistemology into neoclassical economics has had profound methodological consequences which

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Abstract

Purpose

In this paper the aim is to show how the translation of a logical positivist epistemology into neoclassical economics has had profound methodological consequences which over‐determine an inability to predict cusps and their associated crises.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a review of epistemological and methodological literature, it is argued that the financial crises of the past 20 years ought to initiate a questioning of the epistemological foundations of the discipline.

Findings

As an alternative, it is suggested that an economics methodology informed by critical realism would increase the probability of a timely prediction of crises.

Originality/value

The paper de‐emphasises falsification as a key criterion for assessing the quality of knowledge, provides more space for non‐quantified reflections on relationships, a thicker model of human agency, a well‐specified model of collective human economic behaviour as well as an endogenous possibility of dramatic change within the economic domain.

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