Economics for Real

11  Conversation, realism, and inference

Revisiting the rhetoric vs. realism dispute

Jesús Zamora Bonilla

But wait. Before you go, look here over at the blackboard. I've got a sweet diagram of an Edgeworth box that shows the mutual benefit from intellectual exchange. Now suppose to start with we make the assumption that both parties are self-interested …

(Deidre McCloskey 1994: 363)

1 The rhetoric–realism debate: are we all rhetorical realists after all?

Though the debate about ‘rhetoric’ and ‘realism’ in economics (or in science more generally) is not now as intense as it used to be a couple of decades ago, it has undoubtedly affected, in a very intense way, the way most philosophers currently regard scientific knowledge and scientific research. ...