Reversals of Assumptions and Implications
Journal of Political Economy
1971
The possibility that assumptions and implications may be interchanged has been interpreted by some economists to imply that assumptions can be required to have direct empirical meaning. Such an interpretation is incorrect. Section I summarizes the methodological viewpoint adopted in this essay. Section II contains a discussion of different types of reversals associated with different meanings of assumption. Section III concludes that purported reversals of assumptions and implications do not affect the empirical characteristics of the statements involved and do not cast doubt upon the proposition that the usefulness of economic theory must be judged by the agreement of the theory's logical consequences with observation.
- DOI
- 10.1086/259793
- Volume
- 79 (4)
- Pages
- 867-877
- Language
- en
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