This book defends the old-fashioned view that the basic axioms of economics are "inexact" and that economics proceeds by deducing the consequences of these axioms in particular circumstances. The method of economics is deductive, and confidence in the implications of economics derives from confidence in its axioms rather than from testing their implications. In looking back two generations to this traditional methodological wisdom, I shall be defending economics and economists from common but unwarranted criticisms. I shall also be taking issue with the views defended in other recent monographs.1 In my view many of the basic principles of economics can be regarded as inexact laws, and the methods of theory appraisal that economists employ in practice are scientifically acceptable. But there is another aspect of economic methodology I shall not defend: the commitment to economics as a "separate science." To insist that any acceptable economic theory must, like current theory, aspire to capture the entire economic "realm" has no justification and leads, I shall argue, to stagnation. The keys to the methodological peculiarities of economics lie in its structure and strategy.

这本书捍卫了一种过时的观点，即经济学的基本公理是“不精确的”，经济学是通过推导这些公理在特定情况下的后果来进行的。经济学的方法是演绎的，对经济学含义的信心来自于对其公理的信心，而不是检验其含义。从两代经济学家的角度来看，这种方法论上的批评是毫无根据的。在我看来，经济学的许多基本原理都可以被视为不精确的规律，经济学家在实践中所采用的理论评价方法在科学上是可以接受的。但是，我不想为经济学方法论的另一个方面辩护：把经济学作为一门“独立的科学”。坚持认为任何可接受的经济理论都必须像当前的理论一样，渴望占领整个经济“领域”，这是没有道理的，我认为这会导致经济停滞。经济学方法论特色的关键在于其结构和策略。