From Methodological Pluralism to a Theoretical Mainstream, and Then to the Empirical Turn: Half a Century of Evolution in Economic Science

Due to health issues affecting speaker Michel De Vroey, the event has been CANCELED and postponed to a later date.

HiPhiS (History & Philosophy of Science) Lecture by Michel De Vroey, economist and historian of economic thought, professor emeritus at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). Free admission.

HiPhiS – Interuniversity Seminar on the History and Philosophy of Science
2024 Session: Questions of Scale? Comparative Perspectives.

Founded in 2009 and organized by the universities of Montpellier and the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme de Montpellier, HiPhiS is a high-level interuniversity seminar on contemporary science aimed at raising awareness among the entire academic community (faculty and students) of the interdisciplinary significance and philosophical implications of research conducted in the teams and laboratories of our universities, as well as within the international scientific community.

The 2024 HiPhiS program is supported by theUM Research Cluster (Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, and Systems).

HiPhiS Contacts: Delphine Bellis / Laurent Boiteau / Viviane Durand-Guerrier

Abstract

This historical overview is organized around three taxonomies. The first is a triad (“Theory without Measurement,” “Theory and Measurement,” “Measurement without Theory”) that we associate with three distinct periods : (i) from 1945 to 1970, then (ii) through the 1990s, and finally (iii) up to the present day. The second taxonomy distinguishes between works based on whether or not they meet the criteria of the mainstream (a concept understood as being methodologically grounded). The third taxonomy distinguishes between two understandings of the subject matter of economic theory: the study of how the market economy functions versus the study of decision-making in the economic sphere. As these theses have been put to the test of empirical verification, the results of this exercise appear to us to be generally positive.