Preface

Summary

The first edition of this book was published in 1980. Since then we have seen seven major textbooks, three books of readings, an annotated bibliography, and of course hundreds of articles, all focused on economic methodology – not bad going for a mere decade of intellectual activity in a relatively minor branch of economics.

This explosion of the literature in the methodology of economics would alone have warranted a second edition, in order to take account of new developments in the field. Moreover, my central message has sometimes been misunderstood, no doubt because it was badly expressed, tempting me to restate my argument. In addition, some of the case studies in the second half of the book were too flimsy and others needed updating. Finally, new developments in macroeconomics, general equilibrium theory, and international trade theory encouraged me to prepare a new edition.

At first, I had ambitions to double the length of the original book by new chapters on post-Keynesian economics, experimental economics, game theory, and the crisis in econometrics, resolving the clash between Bayesian and classical theories of inference. But in the final analysis, intellectual laziness and a disinclination to rush in where even angels fear to tread have produced a second edition which is only marginally longer than and different from the first.