Ljubljana, June

2011

PHILOSOPHY AND DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMICS

AND BUSINESS STUDIES

Kaja
Brankov
Igor
Ivakovi

Rejection of methodological exclusiveness

Against positivist orthodoxy

Academics cannot always rely only on

empiricism

Everything cannot be measured

Authentic knowledge is based on sense,

experience and positive verification
Society undergoes three phases in its quest
for the truth: (1) the theological, (2) the
metaphysical, and (3) the positive
Using scientific methods to uncover the laws
according to which physical and human
events occur

Isidore Auguste
Marie Franois
Xavier Comte
(1798 1857)

Positivists about history:

It analyses specific event
It cannot be generalized
It cannot predict events
It cannot be objective, because
historian is a member of society
Conclusion: HISTORIAN IS NOT
A SCIENTIST!
Empiricism - Leopold von Ranke:
wie es eigentlich gewesen

Leopold
von Ranke
(1795
1886)
4

Methodological decision depends on:

Nature of research
The conditions under which research is
carried out (time, money ..)
When observing society we shouldnt
exclude human cultural norms, values,
symbols, and social processes viewed
from a subjective perspective
5

Edward Hallett Carr contended that history

is a social science, not an art
Historians, like scientists, seek
generalizations that help to broaden the
understanding of one's subject
Historical generalizations were often related
to lessons to be learned from other
historical occurrences
Scientists are not purely neutral observers,
but have a reciprocal relationship with the
objects under their study just like historians
Back to Kant and Hegel

Edward
Hallett Carr
(1882
1982)
6

Paul Feyerabend
1975: Against Method
Even in the natural sciences
researchers often changed what
they were doing and how they
did things.
A single prescriptive scientific
method would limit the
activities of scientists, and
hence restrict scientific progress
Successful science require a
state of epistemological
anarchy.

Paul
Feyeraben
d
(1924
1994)

What methodological pluralism?

Are methods used appropriate?
Demarkation problem
The nature of social reality
Global financial crisis

Ziliak & McCloskey, 1996: 182 fulllength papers published in the 1980s in
the American Economic Review 70%
did not distinguish economic from
statistical significance
Ziliak & McCloskey, 2008: The practice
got worse in the 90s

Is mainstream economic
research paradigm
ripe for overthrow?

10

What distinguishes good from bad in learned discourse is

not the adoption of a particular methodology, but the earnest
and intelligent attempt to contribute to a conversation You
can tell whether [an argument] is persuasive only by thinking
about it and talking about it with other thoughtful people. Not
all regression analyses are more persuasive than all moral
arguments; not all controlled experiments are more
persuasive than all introspections.
(McCloskey 1998, The Rhetoric of Economics)

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Overreliance on any one method can lead to a

limited understanding of the phenomena of interest.
Methodological pluralism contributes to a greater
understanding of the topic.

12

Environmental management
is becoming more complex :
Multifaceted nature of
environmental protection and
promotion
Environmental policy
Stakeholders pressure
Multidisciplinary and
interdisciplinary provision of
environmental protection

4 Facilitates dissemination and

implementation of research
results and fosters
improvements in
environmental management:
Environmental protection
Environmental promotion
Employee education
Environmental policy
Stakeholders integration

Transformation of
complexity into a pluralistic
methodological approach:
Diversity of qualitative and
quantitative methods
Integration of qualitative and
quantitative research methods
Multidisciplinary approaches to
research methodology

Adequate application of a
3 pluralistic methodology leads
to advanced research results
in environmental
management
Deeper, broader, multidimensional
Realistic, practical
Comprehensive
Context-related
Unexpected results

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Conclusion environmental management research

should demonstrate a balance of diverse methodological

paradigm
Increased methodological pluralism in environmental
management research requires:
Open-mindedness and collaboration between researchers using
qualitative and quantitative approaches
Education for researchers, students, managers on the use, application
and integration of both qualitative and quantitative methods.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Just as machines that were originally created for separate functions such as
printing, faxing, scanning, and copying have been combined into a single
integrated technological unit, so too methods that were originally created as
distinct, stand-alone approaches can now be combined into more
sophisticated and multifunctional designs.

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Davis, J. B. 2006 - The turn in economics: neoclassical dominance to

mainstream pluralism?; ournal of Institutional Economics
Editorial. (2011). Methodological pluralism in health communication
research. Patient Education and Counseling, 82 (2011).
Fullbrook E. (ed) 2009 - Ontology and Economics: Tony Lawson and his
critics
Fullbrook E. (ed) 2008 - Pluralist Economics
Lawson, T. 2009 - The current economic crisis: its nature and the course
of academic economics; Cambridge Journal of Economics
Lawson, T. 2006 - The nature of heterodox economics; Cambridge
Journal of Economics
Lawson, T. 1997 - Economics and Reality, London and New York:
Routledge

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