Has Economics Lost Its Own Identity?

Dealing with economic science from the methodological point of view represents an unusual challenge. Primarily owing to the fact that there is a whole spectrum of opinions on how economics is supposed to be studied. Besides, the very idea of the methodology and the way it evolved over time gave the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Asian economic and financial review 2014-09, Vol.4 (9), p.1190
Main Author: Manic, Slavica
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Economic theory
Economics
Economists
Hegemony
Hypotheses
Identity
Imperialism
Microeconomics
Political economy
Realism
Science
Social sciences
Studies
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Summary:Dealing with economic science from the methodological point of view represents an unusual challenge. Primarily owing to the fact that there is a whole spectrum of opinions on how economics is supposed to be studied. Besides, the very idea of the methodology and the way it evolved over time gave the opportunity to consider direction in which economic science moves. Deprived of previously analyzed (and until recently neglected) knowledge of the philosophy of science, and prone to bypassing certain economic facts, economics has lost its own identity finding itself in a situation that could be described as vague. Although it succeeds (thanks to the insistence on exactness) to sustain imperial status in relation to other social sciences, economic science almost simultaneously has become just a trophy for those disciplines being exact a long time ago. Such a positioning of economics constitutes the initial impulse for writing this paper. Certainly, it is illusory to expect that it is feasible to elaborate in detail everything that touches the above-mentioned issues. That is why the claims of this article are far more modest. The aim is to make a review of relevant literature that offers different views comparing to orthodox one which dominates economic science. Since absolute truth is not guaranteed to any science (complete confidence, as a rule, comes from ignorance), we believe that reference to such standpoints (supporting the thesis that economic science does not develop in a constructive way) is desirable because it can initiate a new debate and possibly produce fresh and/or more appropriate ideas on how economics should be further developed.
ISSN:2305-2147
2222-6737