Economic sciences and their disciplinary links

CRESPO, RICARDO F.

Praga

Congreso; 16th International Congress on Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science and Technolo-gy; 2019

For Mäki (2002: 8) the notion of economics constitutes a dangerous mélange of notions: ?there is no one homogeneous economics?. Backhouse and Medema claim that ?economists are far from unanimous about the definition of their subject? (2009: 223). However, John Stuart Mill, Carl Menger and Neville Keynes, ?methodological precursors? of economic science, have developed useful definitions and classifications of economic sciences.Mill distinguishes:- The ?Teleological? art of definition of the ends of economic actions, a normative discipline (1882: 657); - ?Political Economy?, an abstract science considering only economic motives: ?the desire of obtaining the greatest quantity of wealth with the least labor and self-denial? ([1844] 2006: 323). - The ?art of economic practice?, considering all motives influencing actual economic phenomena. Menger?s classification is this:1. The ?historical sciences of economics?: economic statistics and economic history that investigate concrete economic phenomena. 2. ?The morphology of economic phenomena, whose function consists in the classification of economic facts in accordance with their general species, and subspecies? (1960: 14). 3. ?Economic theory, which has the task of investigating and establishing the laws of economic phenomena, i.e., the regularities in their coexistence and succession, as well as their intrinsic causation? (1960: 14). It has the role of demonstrating (Darstellung) and understanding (Verständnis) (1960: 7) economic phenomena. It has two orientations: the ?realistic-empirical? and the ?exact?. The former uses the Baconian induction that cannot reach at universal truths or laws, but general tendencies ([1883] 1985: 57). The later seeks ?to ascertain the simplest elements of everything real? arriving at forms qualitatively strictly typical ([1883] 1985: 60).4. Practical or applied economics, with its specific method (1960: 16, 21-22). Concerning Keynes, he distinguishes ?positive science?, ?normative or regulative science? and ?an art? ([1890] 1955: 34-35), respectively dealing with ?economic uniformities, economic ideals and economic precepts? ([1890] 1955: 31, 35).This paper will construct a classification of economic sciences based on the previous, will characterize the different disciplines arising from it, and will analyze their disciplinary relations, whether they are multidisciplinary, crossdisciplinary, interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary, according to Cat?s (2016) systematization of these concepts. References:Cat, J. (2017). ?The Unity of Science?. In: E.N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/scientific-unity/.Keynes, J.N. ([1890] 1955). The Scope and Method of Political economy. New York: Kelley and Millman. Mäki, U. (2002). ?The dismal queen of the social sciences?. In: U.Mäki (ed.), Fact and Fiction in Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Menger, C. ([1883] 1985). Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics, Ed. Louis Schneider, Transl. Francis J. Nock. New York and London: New York University Press. Menger, C. (1960). ?Toward a Systematic Classification of Economic Sciences?. In: L.Sommer (ed.) Essays in European Economic Thought. Princeton (NJ): D. van Nostrand. Mill, J.S. (1882). A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, Eighth Edition. New York: Harper & Brothers. Mill, J.S. ([1844] 2006). Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy (Essay V: ?On the Definition of Political Economy; and on the Method of Investigation Proper to It?). In Collected Works of John Stuart Mill, Volume 4. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.