ABOUT THIS BOOK

Rosenberg applies current thinking in philosophy of science to neoclassical economics in order to assess its claims to scientific standing. Although philosophers have used history and psychology as paradigms for the examination of social science, there is good reason to believe that economics is a more appropriate subject for analysis: it is the most systematized and quantified of the social sciences; its practitioners have reached a measure of consensus on important aspects of their subject; and it encompasses a large number of apparently law-like propositions.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Alexander Rosenberg is chair and R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy at Duke University.

REVIEWS

“This is a valuable book from which much can be learned. The comparisons between economics and physics are skillfully and convincingly managed. . . . A first rate discussion of economics and ideology that is well worth reading.”
—Philosophy of Science

“Rosenberg skillfully employs recent work in the philosophy of science in offering a coherent and sensible construal of general statements in microeconomics. The result is the best extended philosophical consideration of economic theory in decades.”
—Nous

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

2. The Logical Status of Microeconomic General Statements

3. Individuals and Aggregates

4. Antecedents and Consequents

5. Reasons and Causes

6. Microeconomic General Statements

7. The Positivist Alternative

8. Conclusions and Applications

Notes

Bibliography

Index

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