Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/315818 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Citation: 
[Journal:] Economic Thought [ISSN:] 2049-3509 [Volume:] 8 [Issue:] 1 [Year:] 2019 [Pages:] 40-52
Publisher: 
World Economics Association, Bristol
Abstract: 
Economics is currently experiencing a climate of uncertainty regarding the soundness of its theoretical framework and even its status as a science. Much of the criticism is within the discipline, and emphasises the alleged failure of the neoclassical viewpoint. This article proposes the deployment of partial modelling, utilising Boolean networks (BNs), as an inductive discovery procedure for the development of economic theory. The method is presented in detail and then linked to the Semantic View of Theories (SVT), closely identified with Bas van Fraassen and Patrick Suppes, in which models are construed as mediators creatively negotiating between theory and reality. It is suggested that this approach may be appropriate for economics and, by implication, for any science in which there is no consensus theory, and a wide range of viewpoints compete for acceptance.
Subjects: 
economic models
history of economic theory
complexity economics
computational modelling
Boolean networks
semantic view of theories
JEL: 
B40
B50
B59
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by-nc Logo
Document Type: 
Article

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