Historical models and economic syllogisms

Resumo

This paper proposes a classification of economic models into three types: historical, axiomatic and conditional. Historical or empirical models utilize the historical-deductive method, and are generalizations from the economic regularities and tendencies that we find in the real world. Axiomatic models utilize the hypothetical-deductive method; they are syllogisms whose major premise is an axiom–a self-evident truth; they are appropriate for methodological sciences such as mathematics and econometrics. Conditional economic models are likewise syllogisms, but they are suitable for economics because they make for clearer and more precise economic reasoning. The criterion of truth of the substantive sciences is the conformity with reality, of the methodological science, its internal consistency. When a school of economic thought adopts mainly axiomatic models, as is the case with neoclassical economics, it implicitly falls into contradiction because their best representatives believe in the conformity with reality criterion. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Ficha do documento

Tipo

Artigo científico

Ano

2018

Instituição

Routledge

Fonte

Repositório da FGV

Idioma

Inglês

Acesso

Acesso restrito

DOI

10.1080/1350178X.2017.1368091

Identificador

oai:repositorio.fgv.br:10438/25515

Palavras-chave

Axiomatic SyllogismsConditional SyllogismsCriteria Of TruthHistorical ModelsMethodModelos históricos