Philosophische Ideen und ökonomische Erkenntnisprogramme - Anmerkungen zu dem Essay von Steffen Groß / Philosophical ideas and Economics: a comment to Steffen Groß

Real or alleged crises in economics often give rise to ask whether the naturalistic manner in economics - mathematics, econometrics and that all - can be the proper way to gain essential and useful knowledge of an economy. Instead to search for economic or social laws economists should try to understand the cultural basis and cement of economic behavior and economic relationships. The proper method to do economics has to be the method of hermeneutics (comprehensive understanding). To this proposal of Steffen Groß I comment in some detail. My starting point is the work of the philosopher Hans Albert who has written much to analyse critically the scope and method of economics. I refute the thesis of the antinaturalists that there cannot be proper laws in the economy or society citing some examples: Tocqueville’s Law, the Law of Corruption and Alchian’s Fundamental Law of Economics. Further I argue that economic models entail lawlike propositions besides some simplifying assumptions. To demonstrate my third category of lawlike propositions i.e. fundamental insights in the nature of societies and markets I cite some ideas from Hayek, Albert and North. In order to apply economics properly in alien societies it is often necessary to understand the character of the foreign culture. In this sense a proposed method of hermeneutics might be of great practical utility. Yet, as I argue, hermeneutics is no substitute for the naturalistic approach to explain economic or social events or processes even if Searle’s thesis of the absolute free will is true.