=================== HES POSTING ====================== [Slightly edited by RBE] May I put forward, as an << agent provocateur >>, the hypothesis that the set of the Friedmans's Ideas are problems that belong to epistemology rather than to taxonomy, unless the two can be mixed with each other? Actually, Friedman's thought remains trapped in a very strong contradiction that is not the admission of a relation between income and money supply, but the current inability in giving the << inflation by costs >> an original status. According to measurable reality, << inflation by costs >> exists and can't be reduced to << inflation by demand >>. When the prices rise in a context of relative oversupply and of increasing unemployment, the cause can't be an excess of currencies in front of commodities. Friedman knows well the fact, of course. He knows, too, that the explanation of increasing costs by increasing wages refers, in the last resort, to << inflation by demand >>. And the most interesting point is that Keynesian thought leads to the same theoretical crash! That's the reason why restrictive monetary policies continue to be run, even when salaries drop. And that's again the reason why Friedman introduces a notion of elapsed time, << For there is much evidence that even during business cycles the money stock plays a largely independant role >>. But what about the persistent inflation through the cycles series (already more than fifty years, excuse for the few!), even when the money stock is under control? Friedman escapes the problem through the notions of << inertia >>, << rigidity >>, << expectations >> which are non - scientific in the popperian sense -- only based on behaviour hypotheses, that is to say metaphysical ones. My question, which may be ingenuous, can be as follows: is epistemology a category of taxonomy, or does a possible taxonomy of epistemology exist? For instance: is Friedman's contradiction similar to Marx's trying unsuccessfully to transform his << surplus-value rate >> in a << profit rate >> (problem which is still unresolved, too), or of another category? Best regards Romain Kroes ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]