Notes

Abstract

Note 1. Failure to start from the facts and from factual problems is the original sin of all empirical sciences. Words and concepts usurp the place of the analysis of facts and conditions. Many are those who blind themselves to the facts by words, definitions, false abstractions, slogans, and prejudices. There were, for example, the notorious opponents of Galileo, who refused to make use of a telescope to look at the moon of Jupiter, because according to their theory and definitions Jupiter could have no moon, and therefore any further study of the heavens was superfluous. “This kind of person”, Galileo said, “believes that truth is not to be found in the world or in nature, but in the comparison of texts”. To-day such blindness to, or fear of, the real world can be laughed at. But such laughter is hardly justified. Economists are especially apt to suffer from a failure to see the true point of departure of their subject in everyday experience and its problems.