Re: reading lists in methodology/HET 
Several people were interested in reading lists in above. I've wiped  
the names off. 
A course syllabus in included below.  
It is offered warts and all and has to be understood in the context  
in which it has been offered - taught to undergraduate honours class  
(probably low-level gradualy material in the US); last taught 1992;  
includes some local and eccentric reference material. 
 
Evan Jones Economics Sydney University 
[log in to unmask] 
 
CAUTION: WHAT FOLLOWS IS LENGTHY 
 
University of Sydney 
Economics III(P) Hons 
First Semester 1992 
Methodology in Economics and Political Economy 
 
This course is a one semester seminar programme, being a comparative  
examination of issues in methodology in economics and political economy. It 
deals  
briefly both with some traditional debates within mainstream economics, and 
also  
with methodological differences within and across different schools of  
thought in political economy. Insofar as mainstream 'histories of economic 
thought' convey  
past controversies as the unerring ascendancy of truth over falsehood,  
leading inexorably to the glorious status quo which is asymptotically 
approaching  
intellectual perfection, this programme can be seen as an alternative 
history of  
economic thought.  
 
In principle, the predominant emphasis is upon issues in methodology  
per se, and not on questions of epistemology ('upstream') or of conceptual  
frameworks and subject matter ('downstream'). These three 'levels' are 
unavoidably  
interrelated, and discussion will inevitably concern epistemology and 
conceptual  
structure, but the latter issues will not be pursued systematically. 
Ultimately, of  
course, conceptual structure and subject matter is of dominant 
significance. Discussion  
of methodological issues has to be seen as instrumental in gaining  
perspective in that domain. 
 
Methodological issues are elusive. Nevertheless, a certain patience  
generates rewards because new intellectual directions and academic 
controversy are  
permeated with methodological considerations. There are numerous traps: 
* the language itself is unstable, with temporal variations in the meaning 
of labels 
* there is a need to distinguish between the self-advertisements in matters 
methodological and the practices of various schools (watch what they  
do rather than what they say) 
* one needs to distinguish between the methodological program of the  
innovators themselves (Marx, Keynes) and the principles of the 
disciples/school  
that follows (Marxism, Keynesianism) 
* some schools (Keynesianism, post-Keynesianism, neo-Marxism,  
econometrics) have been lax in providing statements on methodological 
underpinnings and  
a certain speculation is called for in these arenas 
* the sociological determinants of disiplinary orientation, which  
defy any reasonable methodological principles, are of major significance 
 
Several journals give more than passing attention to methodological  
issues (typically in inverse proportion to their status) and could be 
consulted for  
additional reading  
In particular, see:  
        Journal of Economic Issues (JEI) - 330.105/2 
        History of Political Economy (HOPE) - 320.9 (Wolst) 
        Philosophy of the Social Sciences - 300.105/1 
        American Journal of Economics and Sociology  (AJES) - 330.5/8 
        Journal of Post-Keynesian Economics (JPKE) - 330.15605/2 
        Kyklos - 305/55 (Wolst) 
        Theory and Society - 301.05/43 
        History and Theory - 901/1816 
        Theory and Decision - 300.105/2 
 
References listed below are to be used as basis for seminar  
presentations and seminar papers. Starred items (*) are to be read by all 
participants.  
 
 
Weeks 
 
1. Introduction 
        Outline of the scope of the course and seminar allocation    
 
 
2.   Beginnings - Developments in the Philosophy of Knowledge  
(Epistemology) and the Methodological Underpinnings of Early Political 
Economy 
 
The beginnings of 'political economy' and its context: developing 
philosophical  
visions (Bacon, Descartes, etc) and the methodological borrowings of early 
political  
economy. What sense(s) underlie the use of the label 'law' for the 
attempted  
systemisation of human behaviour? Note the concept of 'natural' law and its 
theological underpinnings. 
 
* Robert Brown, The Nature of Social Laws, 1984, Ch.2 (omit 56-58) 
* Phyllis Deane, The State and the Economic System, Oxford Univ.  
Press, 1989, Ch.3 
- Deane, op.cit., Chs. 1,2,4   
- Brown, op.cit., Intro (omit bottom of p.17 - mid p.20) 
* S. Zamagni, 'economic laws', in J. Eatwell, et.al., The New  
Palgrave Dictionary, p.52 
 
 
3. Background Developments in Anglo-European (Mainstream) Philosophy of 
Science 
 
Is there an appropriate 'scientific' method for interpreting human 
behaviour?  
Developing fashions within orthodoxy in appropriate method - 
inductivism/verificationism; falsificationism (Popper); paradigms and  
revolutionary transformation - non-falsifiable? (Kuhn); 'research  
programmes' - falsifiable paradigms? (Lakatos)  
 
Note: This mainstream tradition has generated the language of methodological  
exchange. In general, however, the exchange exists at the level of 
desiderata rather  
than a representation of evolving practices (with the possible exception on 
Kuhn).  
 
* D. Hausman, "Economic Methodology and the Philosophy of Science", in G.  
Winston & R. Teichgraiber (eds), The boundaries of economics, (Cambridge 
Univ.  
Press, 1988) (general overview) 
* Blaug, The Methodology of Economics, Cambridge U.P. 1980, pp.1-17;  
29-40 
- Bruce Caldwell, Beyond Positivism, Ch.5 (on Popper, Kuhn &  
Lakatos; ignore Feyerabend) 
* John Naughton, "Revolution in Science: 200 years on", New  
Scientist, 5 August 1982 (in defense of Kuhn) 
- H. Katouzian, Ideology and Method in Economics, Macmillan, 1980, p.47- 
55  
 
 
4/5. The Construction and Cementing of a Rationalist (Apriorist)  
tradition in  
Economics. 
 
* P. Deane, "The Scope and Method of Economic Science", Economic  
Journal, 93, March 1983 (the social context) 
 
a. The Cementing of Apriorism: merging Ricardo (axiomatic reasoning),  
individualism  
(from liberalist ideology) and the calculus (technique, marginalist  
conceptual agenda) in the Neoclassical age  
 
- D O'Brien, The Classical Economists, Clarendon 1975, pp.66-74 (the 
pluralism of method amongst the classical economists) 
* N. Georgescu-Roegen, "Methods in Economic Science", JEI, 13,2, 1979, esp. 
pp.317-321. 
- Lowe, On Economic Knowledge, Chs.4 & 8. 
- Mark Blaug, The Methodology of Economics, Ch.3 (19th century economists'  
apriorist method confronts the prevailing wisdom of 'verificationism') 
- T.W. Hutchison, The Significance and Basic Postulates of Economic Theory, 
Macmillan, 1938, Ch.3 
- M. Blaug, "Economic Method in One Easy Lesson", in Economic History and  
the History of Economics, Wheatsheaf, 1986 
 
b.  the Robbins reconstruction (revives apriorism against 1930s attacks, 
and sets the  
apriorist agenda for neoclassical dominance of post-1945 textbooks) 
* Lionel Robbins, An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic  
Science, Macmillan, 1935, Ch.4 
 
c.  Friedman's instrumentalism (Friedman re-reconstructs apriorism  
against further attacks, especially those directed at the 'realism' of 
axioms;  
prediction as the true test of a theory, drawing on 'falsificationist' 
principles to defend  
by hyperbole an unrepentant apriorist tradition) 
- Hutchison, Knowledge and Ignorance in Economics, Blackwell, 1977, Ch.2  
* Caldwell, Beyond Positivism: Economic Methodology in the Twentieth  
Century, Allen & Unwin, 1982, Ch.8 
* Charles Wilber, "Empirical Verification and Theory Selection: The 
Keynesian-Monetarist Debate", JEI, 13,4, 1979 
         
 
6. Econometrics 
 
* C. Wilber, "Emirical Verification and Theory Selection: The Keynesian-  
Monetarist Debate", Journal of Economic Issues, XIII/4, Dec. 1979 (is  
falsification possible?) 
* I. Stewart, Reasoning and Method in Economics, McGraw Hill, 1979, Ch.9  
(rudiments of econometrics) 
- O. Hamouda & J. Smithin (eds), Keynes and Public Policy After Fifty 
Years;  
Vol.2: Theories and Method, Edward Elgar, 1988, Chs. 1 & 2 (Keynes,  
econometrics and macroeconometric model-building) 
- P.Mirowski, "The Probabilistic Counter-Revolution, or How Stochastic  
Concepts came to Neoclassical Economic Theory", Oxford Economic Papers, 41, 
1989,  
217-235 (the attack on neoclassical determinism) 
 
 
7.   Classical Marxism (Economics): on which profound disagreement exists 
as to  
underlying method 
- G. Lichtheim, Marxism, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961, Intro., Part 1, Ch.1 
and Part 2, Chs.1,2 (philosophical and contextual backdrop)  
* J. Farr, "Marx's Laws", Political Studies, XXXIV, June 1986 (Marx's 
method  
as 'historical realism')  
- E. Mandel, Marx's Capital I, Penguin, 1976, Intro. Sec.2; or: Late 
Capitalism,  
Verso  1975, pp.13-24 & 39-43 (a dialectic of the logico-abstract and  
the concrete-historical). 
- D. Sayer, "Method and Dogma in Historical Materialism".  
Sociological Review, 23/4 1975, 779-91 (the logico-abstract and the 
concrete  
historical as separate spheres of explanation) 
- M. Godelier, "Structure and Contradiction in capital", in R. Blackburn 
(ed),  
Ideology in Social Science, Fontana, 1972 (apriorist: the logico-abstract 
dominates  
the concrete-historical). 
 
 
8/9.   Historical/Evolutionary Knowledge 
 
a.  the German historical school 
* entries: German Historical School; English Historical School; 
Methodenstreit, J. Eatwell, et.al., The New Palgrave Dictionary,  
Macmillan, 1987 
* H. Betz, "How does the German Historical School Fit?", HOPE, 20,3, 1988;  
or: 
- Ben Seligman, Main Currents in Modern Economics, Free Press, 1962, Vol.1, 
Ch. 1.i,ii,iii 
  
b.  the English historical school 
* G. Koot, English Historical Economics 1870-1926, Cambridge U.P., 1987,  
Intro. & Conclusion 
 Gerard Koot, "H.S. Foxwell and English Historical Economics", JEI,  
11,3, Sept.1977 
         
c.  Institutionalism (general)   
* Charles Wilber & Robert Harrison, "The Methodological Basis of  
Institutional Economics: Pattern Model, Storytelling, and Holism", JEI, 
12,1,1978;  
or: 
* Daniel Fusfeld, "The Conceptual Framework of Modern Economics",  
JEI, 14,1, March 1980, pp.28-43 
- Joseph Dorfman, "The Role of the German Historical School in American  
Economic Thought", American Economic Review, 45, May 1955 
- C. Hession, John Kenneth Galbraith and his Critics, Mentor, 1972, Ch.8 
- Lowe, On Economic Knowledge, Ch.3  
                 
 
10.   Keynes, Keynesianism, Neo-Keynesianism - Methodological break or  
mainstream diversion? 
 
- Adolph Lowe, On Economic Knowledge, Ch.9 (the conceptual agenda) 
* Rod O'Donnell, Keynes: Philosophy, Economics and Politics,  
Macmillan, 1987, Ch.10; also pp.172-182  
- Anna Carabelli, On Keynes's Method, St. Martin's, 1988, Chs.9,13 
 
11.  Feminism 
 
 
* S. Gunew, "Feminist Knowledge: Critique and Construct", in Gunew (ed),  
Feminist Knowledge, Routledge, 1990; or: E.Gross, "What is Feminist  
Theory?", in C. Pateman & E. Gross (eds), Feminist Challenges, Allen & 
Unwin, 1986 
* Sandra Harding, "Is There a Feminist Method?", in Harding (ed), Feminism  
and Methodology, Open Univ. Press, 1987 
- Sandra Harding, Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?, Cornell Univ Press,  
1991, Ch.12  
- M. Mies, "Towards a methodology for feminist research", in Gloria Bowles 
&  
Renate Klein (eds), Theories of Women's Studies, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 
1983 
- Carole Pateman, "The Fraternal Social Contract: Some Observations on  
Patriarchal Civil Society", in Pateman, The Social Contract, Polity, 1988 
(out of  
political theory) 
- Michele Barrett, Women's Oppression Today: Problems in Marxist Feminist  
Analysis, Verso, 1980, Ch.1; or;  Zillah Eisenstein (ed), Capitalist 
Patriarchy and the  
case for Socialist Feminism, Monthly Review Press, 1979, Ch.1 (a marxist 
feminism?) 
 
 
12.     The Sociology of Knowledge in Economics I - Academia 
 
* Deane, "The Scope and Method of Economic Science", op.cit. 
* J. Brett, "Our Hidden Thinkers", The Australian, January 25, 1992 
- A. Kadish, Oxford Economists in the Late Nineteenth Century, Clarendon  
Press, 1982, Ch.9 
- E. Jones, "The Socialisation of the Economics Profession", mimeo, 1981 
- Evan Jones & Frank Stilwell, "Political Economy at the University of  
Sydney", in Brian Martin et.al. (eds), Intellectual Suppression, Angus & 
Robertson,  
1986 
- Joseph Spengler, "Exogenous and Endogenous Influences in the Formation  
of Post-1870 Economic Thought...", in R. Eagly (ed), Events, Ideology, and 
Economic  
Theory, Detroit, 1968  
 
 
13.     The Sociology of Knowledge in Economics II - the Broader 
Environment 
 
* Ted Wheelwright, "Where do 'Correct' Economic ideas Come From?", in  
Wheelwright, Capitalism, Socialism or Barbarism?, ANZ, 1978 
* E. Jones, "Truth and the Written Word", Honi Soit #25, Oct 16 1990 
* E. Mendelsohn, in Mendelsohn et.al, Social Production of Scientific  
Knowledge, Reidel, 1977, Intro. (the social context of the 'birth' of  
modern science) 
- Mao Tse-Tung, Oppose Book Worship, Foreign Languages Press, 1966 
- Sandra Harding, Whose Science? Whose Knowledge?, Ch.2 
 
 
14. Summing Up 
        General discussion.  
 
 
Evan Jones 
February 1992 
 
 
 
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