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Ideology and Pluralism in Economics: a German View
[working paper]
Corporate Editor
Universität Hamburg, Fak. Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, FB Sozialökonomie, Zentrum für Ökonomische und Soziologische Studien (ZÖSS)
Abstract As a social science, economics studies social interactions. What distinguishes it from other social science disciplines is, firstly, its focus on interactions involving the management of scarce resources and, secondly, its conception of itself as generating traceable, verifiable findings that are fr... view more
As a social science, economics studies social interactions. What distinguishes it from other social science disciplines is, firstly, its focus on interactions involving the management of scarce resources and, secondly, its conception of itself as generating traceable, verifiable findings that are free of normative judgements but instead yield ‘objective knowledge’. Some regard this methodological foundation of positivist fallibilism as the feature that makes economics the ‘queen of the social sciences’. Others are critical of these core assumptions, which they believe have no place in a social science. Interestingly, both critiques and defences of economics often make reference to ideology: defenders claim that economics is as free of ideological bias as it is possible to be, while critics deny economics’ status as a science and instead regard it as an ‘ideology that serves to uphold power relations’. This article explores the relationship between ideology and economics with special reference to German academia, and asks whether a pluralist approach to economics could help to make the discipline less vulnerable to the charge of being ideological.... view less
Keywords
ideology; pluralism; methodology; value freedom; ontology; Federal Republic of Germany; economics; social science
Classification
General Problems, History of the Social Sciences
Basic Research, General Concepts and History of Economics
Free Keywords
Monismus
Document language
English
Publication Year
2019
City
Hamburg
Page/Pages
16 p.
Series
ZÖSS Discussion Paper, 75
ISSN
1868-4947
Status
Published Version; reviewed
Licence
Deposit Licence - No Redistribution, No Modifications