Concepts of Capital by Tittenbrun Jacek;

Author:Tittenbrun, Jacek;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

Lazear, just like Becker and a number of other economists, is thus proud of the label “economic imperialism,” which he views as a natural outgrowth of this discipline’s alleged methodological and epistemological superiority: “The power of economics lies in its rigor. Economics is scientific; it follows the scientific method of stating a formal refutable theory, and revising the theory based on the evidence. Economics succeeds where other social sciences fail because economists are willing to abstract” (Lazear 2000).

Lazear’s hubris is largely unfounded: “The claim that economics is ‘scientific’ since it ‘follows the scientific method’ involving formulating ‘refutable’ theories is an anachronism: most philosophers and other students of science have long ago pointed out major problems in the project of characterizing ‘the scientific’” (Mäki 2008).

Even Lazear himself admits that

the weakness of economics is that to be rigorous, simplifying assumptions must be made that constrain the analysis and narrow the focus of the researcher. It is for this reason that the broader-thinking sociologists, anthropologists, and perhaps psychologists may be better at identifying issues, but worse at providing answers . . . much can be learned from other social scientists who observe phenomena that we often overlook. But the parsimony of our method and ability to provide specific, well-reasoned answers gives us a major advantage in analysis. (2000)

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