Extending the boundaries of economics

Abstract

The latest financial and economic crises have undermined the confidence in the economic science and its methods, fundamentally. Now, the discipline of economics is looking for a new methodological guiding principle. Neuroeconomics, or Imperfect Knowledge Economics, emerged from this search for a New Economic Paradigm. Both schools of economic thought are highly methodology driven and limited in scope. Therefore, they cannot be used as a blueprint for a new philosophy of economics, which is able to replace the Positivist Research Paradigm. Even worse, the analysis of this thesis and the economic turbulences of the last decade, have shown that pure positive economics is impossible. This, however, does not also imply that only normative economics is possible. Nor does it imply that economics is not a science. Rather it is the case that the methodology and particularly the aims and the expectations concerning the generality of economic conclusions have to be revised.