Economics 877 -- Spring 2001

[CR] Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, 1965, 
[FEM] Boland, Foundations of Economic Method 1982 (free at http://www.sfu.ca/~boland/book1.htm)
[MEMB] Boland, Methodology of Economic Model Building 1989  ( free at http://www.sfu.ca/~boland/book3.htm)
[CEM] Boland, Critical Economic Methodology (1997, Routledge) [optional reading only]

* indicates primary readings. All others are secondary and optional.

================= order of readings ===================

Part I
1.      * [CR] Introduction: ‘On sources of knowledge and ignorance’
         * Agassi ‘Sensationalism’ Mind, 1966, pp. 1-24
            Bartley ‘Theories of demarcation between science and metaphysics’, in I. Lakatos 
                and A. Musgrave (eds.) Problems in the Philosophy of Science (Amsterdam:  North Holland), 40-64
2.      * [CR] chapter 1: ‘Science: Conjectures and Refutations’
             Boland ‘Scientific thinking without scientific method: two views of Popper’, 1994 
                ( free at http://www.sfu.ca/~boland/2-VIEWS.pdf)
3.      * [CR] chapter 2: ‘The nature of philosophical problems and their roots in science’
            Agassi, Joseph  ‘The nature of scientific problems and their roots in metaphysics’, in Mario Bunge (ed.) 
                The critical approach to science and philosophy (Free Press, 1964) pp. 189—211
4.      * [CR] chapter 3: ‘Three views concerning human knowledge’
            Agassi, J. [1969] ‘Unity and diversity in science’in R. S. Cohen and M. W. Wartofsky (eds.) 
                Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 4 (New York:  Humanities Press), 463-522
5.      * [CR] chapter 10: ‘Truth, rationality, and the growth of scientific knowledge’
            Agassi, Joseph ‘Science in flux: Footnotes to Popper’, in Cohen and Wartofsky 
                Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 3 (1968) pp. 293-323
6.      * [CR] chapter 11: ‘The demarcation between science and metaphysics’
         * Bartley ‘Theories of demarcation between science and metaphysics’, in I. Lakatos and 
                A. Musgrave (eds.) Problems in the Philosophy of Science (Amsterdam:  North Holland), 40-64

Part II
7.      * Boland ‘Understanding the Popperian legacy in economics’, 1992 
               (free at http://www.sfu.ca/~boland/LEGACY.pdf) 
            Sassower, R. ‘Economics according to Popper’ Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 18, (1984), 383-6
8.      * Agassi ‘Tautology and testability in economics’ Philosophy of Social Science vol 1 (1971) pp. 49-63
            Klappholz, K and J. Agassi ‘Methodological prescriptions in economics’, Economica vol 26 (1959) pp. 60-74
9.      * Agassi ‘Methodological individualism’ British Journal of Sociology vol 11 (1960) pp. 244-70 
         * Agassi ‘Institutional individualism’ British Journal of Sociology vol 26 (1975) pp. 144-55