Economics is philosophy, economics is not science

Read, Rupert (2007) Economics is philosophy, economics is not science. International Journal of Green Economics, 1 (3-4). pp. 307-325. ISSN 1744-9936

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

An environmentalist's outlook is typically claimed to be based on or even constituted by sound science. It would be natural then for a version of economics based on such insights to claim to be 'even more' scientific than traditional economics. I argue for a conclusion radically opposed to this. I suggest that a genuinely green economics will/should eschew any claims to scientificity. I aim to liberate economics from the albatross of scientific ambition. I urge greens not to try to legitimate their aspirations for the world and for society principally by means of science, but rather to embrace green economics as a point of view that has at its heart an endless love of and faith in life. I submit that economics is not science, but rather philosophy, and that a Green political philosophy of life will suffer, and not profit, from pretending otherwise.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	friedman,green,mirowski,physics,political economy,utility
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Philosophy (former - to 2014)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Wittgenstein Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Philosophy
Depositing User:	EPrints Services
Date Deposited:	01 Oct 2010 13:56
Last Modified:	13 Oct 2025 07:32
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/8924
DOI:	10.1504/IJGE.2007.013062

Actions (login required)

View Item