Abstract
The article identifies the major tenets of logical positivism and its successor, logical empiricism, two important movements within 20th-century philosophy of science. It then documents some of the arguments that led to the decline of positivism in the latter half of the 20th century. The impact of positivist ideas on the work of economists writing about economic methodology is examined in a final section.
This chapter was originally published in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition, 2008. Edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Bibliography
Backhouse, R. 1997. Truth and progress in economic knowledge. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Blaug, M. 1992. The methodology of economics: or how economists explain. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Boland, L. 2003. The foundations of economic method: A Popperian perspective. London: Routledge.
Caldwell, B. 1991. Clarifying Popper. Journal of Economic Literature 29: 1–33.
Caldwell, B. 1994. Beyond positivism: Economic methodology in the twentieth century. London: Routledge.
Comte, A. 1830–1842. Cours de philosophie positive. Paris: Bachelier.
Friedman, M. 1953. The methodology of positive economics. In Essays in positive economics, ed. M. Friedman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hands, D. 1993. Testing, rationality and progress: Essays on the Popperian tradition in economic methodology. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Hands, D. 2001. Reflection without rules: Economic methodology and contemporary science theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hutchison, T. 1938. The significance and basic postulates of economic theory. Reprinted, with a new preface, New York: Kelley, 1960.
Hutchison, T.W. 1977. Knowledge and ignorance in economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mach, E. 1886. The analysis of sensations, ed. S. Waterlow, trans. C. Williams. New York: Dover, 1959.
Machlup, F. 1955. The problem of verification in economics. Southern Economic Journal 22: 1–21.
Mirowski, P. 2002. Machine dreams: Economics becomes a cyborg science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Popper, K. 1959. The logic of scientific discovery. New York: Basic Books.
Reisch, G. 2005. How the cold war transformed philosophy of science: To the icy slopes of logic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Robbins, L. 1932. An essay on the nature and significance of economic science. 2nd ed. London: Macmillan. 1935.
Samuelson, P. 1947. Foundations of economic analysis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Suppe, F., ed. 1977. The structure of scientific theories. 2nd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Uebel, T. 1991. Rediscovering the forgotten Vienna Circle: Austrian studies on Otto Neurath and the Vienna Circle. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2008 The Author(s)
About this entry
Cite this entry
Caldwell, B. (2008). Positivism. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1781-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1781-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95121-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
Positivism- Published:
- 17 March 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1781-2
-
Original
Positivism- Published:
- 18 November 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1781-1