Methodology of Non-Experimental Economic Research (I): On the Foundations of Non-Intendedly Empirical Theories

Abstract

Even if the ultimate cognitive goal of theoretical physics is to explain physical reality, one may claim that the body of theoretical physics comprises a wide network of interrelated individual physical theories some of which do not have as their immediate goals the explanation of empirical physical structures. As we pointed out in 5.2, the theory of perfect gas contributes, indirecdy and in concert with other theories, to our understanding of actual gases even if what this theory immediately explains is the perfect gas model, and such a model is not an empirical structure. In isolation, in a very direct way, the theory of perfect gas cannot be said to be an ‘empirical theory’ in the sense discussed in Part III.