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Terminated in academic year 2010/2011

Methodology of Economic Science

Type of study Follow-up Master
Language of instruction Czech
Code 114-0315/02
Abbreviation MEV
Course title Methodology of Economic Science
Credits 3
Coordinating department Department of Economics
Course coordinator prof. Ing. Martin Macháček, Ph.D. et Ph.D.

Subject syllabus

1. Science, its concepts and fields. The origins and development of science (Antiquity, Middle Ages, Modern Period). The crisis of science and the natural world.
2. Philosophy and methodology of science – logical positivism and empirism.
3. Philosophy and methodology of science – critical rationalism and K.R. Popper.
4. History and sociology of science – T.S. Kuhn.
5. Methodology of scientific research programmes – I. Lakatos.
6. Methodology of economic science – the Millian tradition. Deductivism.
7. Logical positivism in economics. Economics as empirical science.
8. Popper´s methodology of social sciences. Falsification principle in economics.
9. Kuhn´s history and sociology of science – an economics application.
10. Methodology of scientific research programmes in economics.
11. Samuelson´s operationalism.
12. Friedman´s methodology of positive economics and the problem of instrumentalism
13. Rhetorical and onthological turns in economics. Critical realism.
14. Naturalistic, sociological, and economic turns in the philosophy of science.

Literature

1. Blaug, M.: The Methodology of Economics: Or, How Economists Explain. 2nd edition. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 1992.
2. Caldwell, B. J.: Beyond Positivism: Economic Methodology in the Twentieth Century. London, Routledge 1994.

Advised literature

1. Boland, L. A.: Critical Economic Methodology. A Personal Odyssey. London, Routledge 1997.
2. Hands, W. D.: Reflection without Rules: Economic Methodology and Contemporary Science Theory. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2001.