Open AccessEconomics is philosophy, economics is not science
Author(s) -
Rupert Read
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
international journal of green economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.22
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 1744-9936
pISSN - 1744-9928
DOI - 10.1504/ijge.2007.013062
Subject(s) - philosophy and economics , economic methodology , neoclassical economics , economics , philosophy of science , energy economics , applied economics , green economy , economics education , positive economics , sociology , social science , political science , philosophy , sustainable development , epistemology , philosophy of sport , microeconomics , economic growth , higher education , law
An environmentalist's outlook is typically claimed to be based on or even constituted by sound science. It would be natural then for a version of economics based on such insights to claim to be 'even more' scientific than traditional economics. I argue for a conclusion radically opposed to this. I suggest that a genuinely green economics will/should eschew any claims to scientificity. I aim to liberate economics from the albatross of scientific ambition. I urge greens not to try to legitimate their aspirations for the world and for society principally by means of science, but rather to embrace green economics as a point of view that has at its heart an endless love of and faith in life. I submit that economics is not science, but rather philosophy, and that a Green political philosophy of life will suffer, and not profit, from pretending otherwise