Economics for Real

2  The verisimilitude of economic models

Ilkka Niiniluoto

Uskali Mäki is known as a vigorous champion of realism in the philosophy and methodology of economics. In debunking anti-realist positions about economics, Mäki has forcibly argued that economic theories may be true and might refer to real entities in the world. Such theories may be cognitively important and successful even when they contain false simplifying assumptions and idealizations (Mäki 1994, 2002b). These conclusions are largely in agreement with my own work on critical scientific realism (Niiniluoto 1999). In a paper presented at the conference ‘Fact or Fiction? Perspectives on Realism and Economics’, held in Rotterdam in 1997, and published in its proceedings Fact and Fiction: ...