=================== HES POSTING ====================== What is common sense? Flavio distinguishes between two different concepts: 1) common sense methodology, and 2) common sense reality. He urges that both need to be instituted within the discipline in order to make economics a more reliable discipline. While I am in wholehearted agreement with Flavio about common sense methodological standards, his call for establishing common sense reality as a foundational element for economics is misguided. In fact, the main criticism I have of "common sense reality" is the same one that Patrick Baert has applied to the use of critical realism in economics (a perspective which Flavio obviously draws on, but does not explicitly aknowledge). Essentially, Flavio wants to discard the positivist notion of reality that pervades economics and erect another pseudo-positivist alternative in its place. Postivism and "common sense" both share a concept of knowledge acqusition as reflecting or picturing a "world-out-there." As such, it does not acknowledge the role of dialogue and social mediation in the construction of economic theories. For example, in talking about the differences between a number of heterodox perspectives, Flavio says that "the common ground in these alternative approaches is their underlying concept of reality." However, the reason there are differences betweeen these schools is because of their different conceptions of reality. What is common among these schools is how they construct reality and, in turn, knowledge, that is, through narrative and rhetoric. The problem is not that their are differences in our perspectives, but that we create these realities as discursive cudgels with which to beat the hell out of one another (best illustrated in my most-hated phrase "history shows..."). The advice to adhere to common sense in our methodology is wise and much needed. But the admonition to to adhere to a common sense "reality" is nothing more than a theoretical sleight of hand, exchanging one positivism for another. Jonathon Mote University of Pennsylvania REFERENCE Baert, Patrick, 1996, "Realist Philosophy of the social sciences and economics: a critique," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Volume 20, pgs. 513-522. ============ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ============ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]