Critical realism in economics : development and debate / [editor], Steve Fleetwood.

A selection of articles previously published in the Review of social economy (1996) and in Ekonomia (1997), with an introduction by the editor.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Pt. I. Development. 1. Developments in economics as realist social theory / Tony Lawson. 2. The 'closure' assumption as a first step: neo-Ricardian economics and post-Keynesianism / Stephen Pratten. 3. Realism, theory and individualism in the work of Carl Menger / Clive Lawson. 4. On Popper, probabilities and propensities / Jochen Runde. 5. Metaphor and critical realism / Paul Lewis. 6. Money is a social relation / Geoffrey Ingham -- Pt. II. Debate. 7. Situating critical realism in economics / Steve Fleetwood. 8. Critical realism and economics: a causal holist critique / Thomas A. Boylan and Paschal F. O'Gorman. 9. Why the 'transcendental' in transcendental realism? / Stephen D. Parsons. 10. Empirical realism as meta-method: Tony Lawson on neoclassical economics / D. Wade Hands. 11. Against Eurocentred epistemologies: a critique of science, realism and economics / Rajani Kanth. 12. Critical issues in economics as realist social theory / Tony Lawson.

Critical Realism, with its focus on the causal structures underlying observable phenomena, is one of the most significant developments of recent years in the philosophy of social science. This volume extends its insights into the fields of economic methodology and economic theory in such a way as to open up new forms of investigation in economics and transform the nature of economic reasoning.

Critical Realism in Economics is more than just an eloquent advocacy of a new way of seeing in economic methodology: it also includes papers from authors critical of this approach, as well as from those who are concerned to elucidate its full implications for contemporary economics. What emerges then from this combination of exposition and critical exchange is a volume of reflection and learning from the pens of some of the leading authorities in the field of economic philosophy.

Critical Realism in Economics will make fascinating reading for both students and exponents of economic methodology, economic theory and social theory.