Econometricians tend to hold simultaneously two views in tension with each other: an apparent anti-realism that holds that all models are false and at best useful constructs or approximations to true models and an apparent realism that models are to be judged by their success at capturing an...

This paper considers the role of theory in our understanding of economic phenomena. While theoretical findings are sometimes claimed to have direct, real world relevance, this is based on rhetoric rather than logic. Theory can and has been considered as analogy, metaphor or framing. These...

In this essay it is argued 1) that Ludwig von Mises's conception of thymology refers to the content of mental actions, and 2) that by Mises's own theory, standard economic propositions are not a priori propositions

One of the pillars of Hayekian social thought is Hayek’s contention that study of the market cannot be a priori. But Hayek seems not to have realized the implications of his own conception of the Pure Logic of Choice. He didn’t realize that the method of deductive analysis he envisioned...

The discipline of economics can benefit a more explicit, systematic and sustained concern with ontology, that is, with the philosophical analysis of the nature of the social world. Contrary to the argument advanced in an article recently published in Critical Review (Steele 2005), the...

This chapter offers several models of ways that scholars can usefully integrate qualitative and quantitative research in both single works and broader research programs: using qualitative methods to identify constructs or hypotheses that can subsequently be examined in quantitative studies;...

The purpose of this paper is an introduction to methods for conducting inquiries in social sciences. A method of inquiry is an organized and systematic scientific approaches used by scholars for controlled investigations and experiments to efficiently solve theoretical and practical problems,...

Qualitative research tends to be regarded as non-rigorous, subjectively biased and, in general, unscientific. This paper is a restatement of the merits of this type of research allied to a repudiation of the arguments of its various critics - particularly the positivist tradition in economics....

This paper has two sources: One is my own research in three broad areas: business cycles, economic measurement and social choice. In all of these fields I attempted to apply the basic precepts of the scientific method as it is understood in the natural sciences. I found that my effort at using...