Against the pragmatic justification for realism in economic methodology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23941/ejpe.v4i1.68Keywords:
realism, anti-realism, Uskali Mäki, Tony Lawson, pragmatismAbstract
In recent times, realism in economic methodology has increasingly gained importance. Uskali Mäki and Tony Lawson are the best-known realists within the discipline and even though their approaches are fundamentally different, both provide (among others) pragmatic defences of realism by claiming anti-realism to be the reason for the low quality of (some) economic models. My paper will show that a pragmatic defence of realism is untenable and furthermore, I will show that for both Mäki's and Lawson's normative ideas there is no need for realism.