Realism, closed systems and abstraction

Journal of Economic Methodology

Volumn 14, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 473-497

  Pratten, Stephen ^a  

^a KING'S COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Abstraction; Closed system; Idealization; Isolation; Ontology

Indexed keywords

EID: 36549073775     PISSN: 1350178X     EISSN: 14699427     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13501780701718748     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. Bhaskar, R. (1978) A Realist Theory of Science, Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Press.
2. Bigo, V. (2006) 'Open and closed systems and the Cambridge School', Review of Social Economy 64(4): 493-514.
3. Cartwright, N. (1989a) Nature's Capacities and their Measurement, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
4. Cartwright, N. (1989b) 'A case study in realism: why econometrics is committed to capacities', PSA, 190-7.
5. Cartwright, N. (1995a) 'Ceteris paribus laws and socio-economic machines', The Monist 78(3): 276-94.
6. Cartwright, N. (1995b) 'An interview with Nancy Cartwright', Cogito 9(3): 203-15.
7. Cartwright, N. (1999a) The Dappled World: A Study of the Boundaries of Science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
8. Cartwright, N. (1999b) 'The vanity of rigour in economics: theoretical models and Galilean experiments', Discussion Paper 43, LSE Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences.
9. Chalmers, A. (1993) 'So the laws of physics needn't lie', Australian Journal of Philosophy 71(2): 196-205.
10. Chick, V. and Dow, S. (2005) 'The meaning of open systems', Journal of Economic Methodology 12(3): 363-81.
11. Collier, A. (2004) Marx, Oxford: Oneworld.
12. Dasgupta, P. (2002) 'Modern economics and its critics', in U. Mäki (ed.) Fact and Fiction in Economics: Models, Realism and Social Construction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 57-89.
13. Dow, S. (2004) 'Reorienting economics: some epistemological issues', Journal of Economic Methodology 11(3): 307-12.
14. Haack, S. (2003) Defending Science - Within Reason, New York: Prometheus Books.
15. Hamminga, B. and de Marchi, N. (eds) (1994) Idealization VI: Idealization in Economics, Amsterdam: Rodopi.
16. Hands, W. (2001) Reflection without Rules: Economic Methodology and Contemporary Science Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
17. Hodgson, G. (2006) Economics in the Shadows of Darwin and Marx: Essays on Institutional and Evolutionary Themes, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
18. Humphreys, P. (2004) Extending Ourselves: Computational Science, Empiricism and Scientific Method, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
19. Jones, M. (2005) 'Idealization and abstraction: a framework', in M. Jones and N. Cartwright (eds) Idealization XII: Correcting the Model Idealization and Abstraction in the Sciences, Amsterdam: Rodopi, pp. 173-218.
20. King, M. and Thornhill, C. (2003) Niklas Luhmann's Theory of Politics and Law, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
21. Lawson, T. (1997) Economics and Reality, London: Routledge.
22. Lawson, T. (2001) 'Two responses to the failings of modern economies', Review of Population and Social Policy 10: 155-81.
23. Lawson, T. (2003a) Reorienting Economics, London: Routledge.
24. Lawson, T. (2003b) 'Ontology and feminist theorizing', Feminist Economics 9(1): 119-50.
25. Luhmann, N. (1995) Social Systems, Stamford: Stamford University Press.
26. Mäki, U. (1992) 'On the method of isolation in economics', Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and Humanities 26: 319-54.
27. Mäki, U. (1994) 'Reorienting the assumptions issue', in R. Backhouse (ed.) New Directions in Economic Methodology, London: Routledge, pp. 236-256.
28. Mäki, U. (2004a) 'Realism and the nature of theory: a lesson from J.H. von Thunen for economists and geographers', Environment and Planning A 36: 1719-36.
29. Mäki, U. (2004b) 'Theoretical isolation and explanatory progress: transaction cost economics and the dynamics of dispute', Cambridge Journal of Economics 28(3): 319-346.
30. Mearman, A. (2006) 'Critical realism and open systems ontology: a critique', Review of Social Economy LXIV(1): 47-75.
31. Nash, S. (2004) 'On closure in economics', Journal of Economic Methodology 11(1): 75-89.
32. Oilman, B. (2003) Dance of the Dialectic: Steps in Marx's Method, Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
33. Peirce, C. S. (1931-58) Collected Papers of Charles S. Peirce, 8 vols, eds C. Hartshorne, P. Weiss and A. Burks, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Referred to in the text as CP; references are by volume and paragraph number.
34. Peirce, C. S. (1976) Mathematical Miscellanea, ed. C. Eisele, Hague: Mouton Publishers.
35. Peirce, C. S. (1998) Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition Vol. 2 1867-71, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 339-363.
36. Pratten, S. (2004) 'Formalism and realisticness in modern economics: the case of the new institutional economics', in J. Davis, A. Marciano and J. Runde (eds) The Elgar Companion to Economics and Philosophy, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 50-67.
37. Pratten, S. (2007) 'Ontological theorising and the assumptions issue in economics', in C. Lawson, J. Latsis and N. Martins (eds) Contributions to Social Ontology, London: Routledge.
38. Rubinstein, A. (1995) 'John Nash: the master of economic modelling', Scandinavian Journal of Economics 97(1): 9-13.
39. Scaltsas, T. (1994) Substances and Universals in Aristotle's Metaphysics, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
40. Short, T. L. (1988) 'Hypostatic abstraction in empirical science', Grazer Philosophische Studien 32: 51-68.