The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics

Part I. Introduction: Content, Structure and Strategy of Mainstream Economics:
1. Rationality, preferences and utility theory
2. Demand and consumer choice
3. Theory of the firm and general equilibrium
4. Equilibrium theory and normative economics
5. Equilibrium theory and macroeconomic models
6. Models and theories in economics
7. The structure and strategy of economics
8. Overlapping generations: a case study
Part II. Theory Assessment:
9. Inexactness in economic theory
10. Mill's deductive method and the assessment of economic hypotheses
11. Methodological revolution
12. Karl Popper, Imre Lakatos: Falsificationism and research programs
13. The inexact deductive method
14. Casting off dogmatism: the case of preference reversals
Part III. Conclusion:
15. Economic methodology
16. Conclusions.

Daniel M. Hausman is the Herbert A. Simon and Hilldale Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. A founding editor of the journal Economics and Philosophy (with Michael McPherson), his research has centered on epistemological, metaphysical, and ethical issues at the boundaries between economics and philosophy. He is the author of Capital, Profits, and Prices (1981), The Inexact and Separate Science of Economics (1992), Causal Asymmetries (1998), Preference, Value, Choice, and Welfare (2012), and Valuing Health: Well-Being, Freedom, and Suffering (2015).

Michael S. McPherson is President of the Spencer Foundation and Past President of MacAlester College, Minnesota. He co-founded the journal Economics and Philosophy with Daniel Hausman and has worked on problems on the borders of economics and philosophy. He is co-author of six books on higher education policy and economics, including Lesson Plan: An Agenda for Change in Higher Education (with William G. Bowen, 2016), Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College in America's Public Universities (2009), and The Student Aid Game: Meeting Need and Rewarding Talent in American Higher Education (1998).

Debra Satz is the Marta Sutton Weeks Professor of Philosophy and Ethics in Society at Stanford University, California, where she is also the Senior Associate Dean for Humanities and Arts. Her research interests include the moral limits of the market, the nature of equality, and the public/private boundary. She is the author of Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets (2010), and the co-editor of Toward a Humanist Justice: The Political Philosophy of Susan Moller Okin (with Rob Reich, 2009) and Occupy the Future (with David Grusky, Doug McAdam and Rob Reich, 2013) and is the author of numerous articles.