Om Økonomi, matematik og videnskabelighed - et bud på provokation



Om end fremtiden i sin karakter naturligvis er usikker, som Davidson pointerer,
b0r man dog ikke helt forudsætningvist afskaffe den 0konomiske politiks mι-
lighed for at pâvirke den fremtidige 0konomiske udvikling. Og ej heller den
0konomiske teori og analyses muligheder for at give et relevant input til den
konkrete udfornning af den 0konomiske politik.

Dog b0r man naturligvis være varsom med den anvendte metodologi. To eks-
treme situationer b0r i mindste fors0ges undgâet. Dels mâ man ikke havne i en
situation, hvor de 0konomiske problemstillinger alene angribes pâ en og kun en
mâde. En sâdan fremgangsmâde er for en0jet og respekterer ikke samfundsvi-
denskabelige problemstillingers sande nature. En af farene her er, som pâpeget
af Johnston (1991:52): ”
It is thus all too possible for someone to activate an
econometric software package, of which he has only a dim understanding, to
apply it to data of whose nature and provenance he is ignorant, and then to
draw conclusions about an economic situation, whose historical and institu-
tional realities he has, perhaps, not studied in any depth
”. Dels mâ man ikke
modsætningsvist konkludere, at enhver angrebsmâde til ethvert givet problem
udg0r en frugtbar metodologisk approach. Man mâ ikke med Feyerabend kon-
kludere, at anythings goes. Dette 0ger ikke 0konomis Videnskabelighed, men
giver derimod den metafysiske dimension i 0konomisk teori en st0rre rolle at
spille, end den b0r tilkomme. Med Adam Smiths grundide om arbejdsdelingens
specialiseringsgevinster in mente b0r man snarere advokere for en metodolo-
gisk pluralisme. Ligesom man samtidig b0r erkende og anerkende, at 0konomi
handler om sâvel kvalitative som kvantitative fænomener.

Respekteres de samfundsvidenskabelige problemstillingers forskellighed, kan
man mâske være med til at sikre, at
Economics do matter and so do perhaps
also economists
for nu at udtrykke det kort.

19



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