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The Principles of Economics

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Uncertainty in Economics

Part of the book series: Contributions to Economics ((CE))

Abstract

Drawing back on John Neville Keynes’ distinction between positive or regulative (normative) science, Milton Friedman (1953), had developed the methodology of positive economics, which still today dominates economic research all over the globe. Then, the question was, whether economics is a science or rather political economy, which was interpreted as an art. If economics were a science, it had to bring about a systematized knowledge about the economy, according to Friedman’s view. Whereas, if economics were an art it would be concerned with identifying rules for attaining some given end. Friedman ended the dispute and established the view that economics is a positive science, which consisted of “a body of tentatively accepted generalizations about economic phenomena that can be used to predict the consequences of changes in circumstances” (Friedman 1953: 25).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a detailed discussion of the Ancient History of Economics please, see Schumpeter (1954: Part II, Chap. 1) Betsy (1997) and Backhouse (2002).

  2. 2.

    This idea had been put forward by Jacob Viner in 1932 and 1933 in a conversation as reported by Kenneth Boulding (1941: 1). See also Backhouse and Medema (2009: 222).

  3. 3.

    See Parsons (1937: 757–775) and Spengler (1948: 2–3).

  4. 4.

    Also, quoted in Backhouse and Middleton (2000: 207) and Backhouse (2010: 108). Italic is in the original.

  5. 5.

    For a detailed discussion of the emergence and development of econometrics please see Epstein (1987) and Louca (2007).

  6. 6.

    http://dev.econometricsociety.org/publications/quantitative-economics (2014-11-25).

  7. 7.

    E.g.: Backhouse and Medema (2009: 228).

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  1. Berlin, Germany

    Julia Köhn

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  1. Julia Köhn
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Köhn, J. (2017). The Principles of Economics. In: Uncertainty in Economics. Contributions to Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55351-1_4

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