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  1. The Economic World View: Studies in the Ontology of Economics.Uskali Mäki (ed.) - 2001 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
    The beliefs of economists are not solely determined by empirical evidence in direct relation to the theories and models they hold. Economists hold 'ontological presuppositions', fundamental ideas about the nature of being which direct their thinking about economic behaviour. In this volume, leading philosophers and economists examine these hidden presuppositions, searching for a 'world view' of economics. What properties are attributed to human individuals in economic theories, and which are excluded? Does economic man exist? Do markets have an essence? Do (...)
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  • Reglobalizing Realism by Going Local, or Should Our Formulations of Scientific Realism be Informed about the Sciences?Uskali Mäki - 2005 - Erkenntnis 63 (2):231-251.
    In order to examine the fit between realism and science, one needs to address two issues: the unit of science question (realism about which parts of science?) and the contents of realism question (which realism about science?). Answering these questions is a matter of conceptual and empirical inquiry by way local case studies. Instead of the more ordinary abstract and global scientific realism, what we get is a doubly local scientific realism based on a bottom-up strategy. Representative formulations of the (...)
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  • Isolation, idealization and truth in economics.Uskali Mäki - 1994 - Poznan Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 38:147-168.
    Challenges the widely held view that good models must necessarily be simplifications and hence cannot be true. This is done by distinguishing between whole truth (complete description) and truth (essential description, attained by the method of isolation).
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  • Economic Epistemology: Hopes and Horrors.Uskali Mäki - 2005 - Episteme 1 (3):211-222.
    The cultural and epistemic status of science is under attack. Social and cultural studies of science are widely perceived to offer evidence and arguments in support of an anti-science campaign. They portray science as a mundane social endeavour, akin to religion and politics, with no privileged access to truthful information about the real world. Science is under threat and needs defence. Old philosophical legitimations have lost their bite. Alarm bells ring, new troops have to be mobilised. Call economics, the good (...)
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  • Explanatory Unification: Double and Doubtful.Uskali Mäki - 2001 - Philosophy of the Social Sciences 31 (4):488-506.
    Explanatory unification—the urge to “explain much by little”—serves as an ideal of theorizing not only in natural sciences but also in the social sciences, most notably in economics. The ideal is occasionally challenged by appealing to the complexity and diversity of social systems and processes in space and time. This article proposes to accommodate such doubts by making a distinction between two kinds of unification and suggesting that while such doubts may be justified in regard to mere derivational unification (which (...)
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  • Science as a Free Market: A Reflexivity Test in an Economics of Economics.Uskali Mäki - 1999 - Perspectives on Science 7 (4):486-509.
    One prominent aspect of recent developments in science studies has been the increasing employment of economic concepts and models in the depiction of science, including the notion of a free market for scientific ideas. This gives rise to the issue of the adequacy of the conceptual resources of economics for this purpose. This paper suggests an adequacy test by putting a version of free market economics to a self-referential scrutiny. The outcome is that either free market economics is self-defeating, or (...)
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  • The methodology of positive economics : Reflections on the Milton Friedman legacy.Uskali Mäki (ed.) - 2009 - Cambridge University Press.
    Milton Friedman's 1953 essay 'The methodology of positive economics' remains the most cited, influential, and controversial piece of methodological writing in twentieth-century economics. Since its appearance, the essay has shaped the image of economics as a scientific discipline, both within and outside of the academy. At the same time, there has been an ongoing controversy over the proper interpretation and normative evaluation of the essay. Perceptions have been sharply divided, with some viewing economics as a scientific success thanks to its (...)
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  • (1 other version)How to Combine Rhetoric and Realism in the Methodology of Economics.Uskali Mäki - 1988 - Economics and Philosophy 4 (1):89.
    The tone of this paper is largely critical. Therefore, I would like to begin by praising Donald McCloskey and Arjo Klamer for their exciting and provocative initiative in the metatheory of economics. They have done us a great favor by opening our eyes to some hidden aspects in the intellectual practices of economists. They have shown that economics is rhetoric; it is persuasion, discourse, conversation, and negotiation, to use their favorite phrases. They have provided plausible arguments and illuminating examples to (...)
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