Citation

Lawson C, Peacock M, Pratten S. Camb. J. Econ. 1996; 20(1): 137-151.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Cambridge Political Economy Society, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Despite recent advances, economic methodology has found it difficult to transcend certain positivist premisses and concerns. We argue that developments in philosophy and social theory under the heading of critical realism are particularly significant with respect to overcoming these problems. To illustrate, we focus upon various themes that arise in a recent collection concerned with economic methodology and institutionalist economics, relating these themes to relevant aspects of this realist position. In so doing, we argue that an economic methodology restricted to description and an institutionalism committed to some form of methodological individualism are not only unnecessary but problematic.