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Kinds of Assumptions and Their Truth: Shaking an Untwisted F‐Twist

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  • Uskali Mäki

Abstract

In an insightful article published in this journal, Alan Musgrave (1981) has argued that once we distinguish between three types of assumptions, Milton Friedman’s F‐twist – according to which the truth of the assumptions of an economic theory is irrelevant to its acceptability – can be untwisted. It is shown that once we bring in more clarity on the formal identity of the different kinds of assumptions, Musgrave’s contribution can be further defined: distinctions can be drawn between detectability and negligibility assumptions, and between domain and acceptability assumptions; the suggested gap between as‐if assumptions and other kinds can be removed; another type, that of joint neglibility assumption, can be introduced; the untwisting of the F‐twist can be accepted in all cases except in the case of early‐step (heuristic) assumptions; and the art of paraphrase is shown to constitute the basis for Musgrave’s strategy and to have limits.

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  • Uskali Mäki, 2000. "Kinds of Assumptions and Their Truth: Shaking an Untwisted F‐Twist," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 317-335, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:53:y:2000:i:3:p:317-335
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-6435.00123
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    Cited by:

    1. Francesco Guala & Andrea Salanti, 2002. "On the Robustness of Economic Models," Working Papers (-2012) 0208, University of Bergamo, Department of Economics.
    2. Uskali Maki, 2005. "Models are experiments, experiments are models," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(2), pages 303-315.

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