This paper identifies four criteria used by mainstream economists of trade unions to judge the adequacy of their various theories. Three of them, however, are hardly ever satisfied. The root cause of this failure is the method adopted by mainstream economic theory, namely deductivism. The...

An adequate conceptualization and measurement of unemployment should express the reality of employment. Designing theoretical concepts that adequately express reality requires appropriate methodological foundations. This paper uses critical realism to demonstrate that the deductive method...

This paper draws upon critical realism to argue that the widespread use of functional relations and laws in economics is misconceived. This misconception stems from the inappropriate use of a deductivist mode of theorising; an empirical realist ontology; and a notion of causality as mere...

This review focuses upon three themes from Aristotle's Economic Thought by Scott Meikle, (1995) to reveal how (1) Aristotle's essentialist metaphysics can assist in clarifying contemporary issues in (2) value theory and (3) economics as ethics. Essentialism allows one to pose (adequately) the...

In a contribution to this journal, Bernard Walters & David Young offer a brief sketch of critical realism and three objections to it. This reply starts with three points of clarification to their sketch before going on to tackle their objections.

Using insights from the 'socio-economics of labour markets' and building upon critical realist meta-theory, this paper offers the first sketch of a socio-economic model of labour markets as an alternative to the orthodox model. Copyright The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on...

An economic system requires a principle of organisation. An adequate theory has to uncover and elaborate this principle Hayek rejects the principle of equilibrium, opting instead for a transformational principle of order. A theory of the latter requires an elaboration of real market processes,...

Boylan and O'Gorman have recently elaborated an interesting new perspective called causal holism, which attempts to go beyond developments in rhetoric and realism. The aim of this paper is to evaluate causal holism from the perspective of critical realism. Emphasis is placed primarily on three...