The Caldwellian Methodological Pluralism: Wishful Thoughts and Personal Tendencies

Economists failed badly both to predict and solve the Great Global Recession of 2008-2010 for two interconnected reasons. The first is that economics has moved too far away from its social foundations. The second reason is that the positivist economic methodology that economics follows has produced both benefits and costs, perhaps even costs than benefits, one may argue. This paper looks at the available evidence (not exhaustively) to argue for a Caldwellian methodological pluralism. It illustrates the advantages of such a methodological approach as well as the disadvantages of its alternatives, especially monolithic positivism.