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Introduction
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9
psychology,sociology,etc.Thisistheconundrumthatthisbookaddresses.
Themainquestionis:Dotheweaknessesofvalue-freeeconomicsimplythe
needforaparadigmshift?
Aswasindicatedearlier,despitethecriticismofvalue-freeeconomics,
aparadigm(inKuhnianunderstanding(Kuhn,1962))ineconomicshasnot
changed.Thereseemtobetwomainreasonsforthis.Firstly,thecriticismisnot
severeandstructuredenough.Secondly,thealternativeparadigmsproposedby
thecriticsarenotconceptuallysoundenough.Toanswerthefirstobjectionthe
authorsynthesizescriticismsfromdifferentperspectives(frombehaviouralto
methodological).Specialattentionisputonchoicesovertime,becauseitseems
thatinthisareavalue-freeeconomicshasthemostproblems(methodologicaland
descriptive).Theenrichedconceptofmultipleselfisproposedandinvestigated.
Thankstothat,itispossibletoidentifythemainweaknessesofvalue-free
economicsinordertoovercomethem.However,itisnotenoughtopresent
thecriticismstowardsvalue-freeeconomics.Forscientists,abadparadigmis
betterthannoparadigm(Kuhn,1962).Thisiswhytheauthorconsiderswhether
value-basedandgoal-orientedeconomicswithnormativeapproachessuchas
economicsofhappiness,capabilityapproach,libertarianpaternalism,andthe
conceptofmultipleselfcanbethealternativeparadigmforvalue-freeeconomics.
Whatareadercangatherfromtheintroductionsofar,thescopeofthisbookis
quiteextensive.Itisimpossibletofullyanalyseeconomicsasscienceon200pages.
Therefore,thefocusisputonafewmainideaswhichcancontributetothecurrent
debateoneconomics.Firstly,Iuselscientificresearchprogramme’proposedby
Lakatos(1980).Itisquiteanold-fashionedapproachthathasfallenfromgrace
ineconomics.However,itisaveryusefulmethodtoanalysehowneoclassical
economicsworks.Iindicateandanalyselhardcore’andlprotectivebelt.’Thanks
tothisanalysiswecanunderstandhoweconomistscanabsorbthedescriptive
criticismandleavehardcoreandparadigmofneoclassicaleconomicsunchanged.
Tautologicalityofrationalityandutilityusedineconomicsiswell-known(Boland,
1981;Hodgson,2012b;Kirchgassner,2013;Sen,1977).However,Lakatosian
methodexplainshowneoclassicaleconomistscouldabsorbdescriptivecriticism
towardshomoeconomicusbychangingtheverymeaningofthetermslrationality’
andlutility.’Lakatosianapproachsetsthestageforthewholebook.Itconcerns
themethodologyofeconomics,becausethedescriptivecriticismisnotenoughto
changeneoclassicaleconomicswhichisbasedonaxioms.Therefore,weneedto
analysethemethodologicalassumptionofneoclassicaleconomicsfromwhichthe
mostimportantoneisitsvalue-freeness.
Atthispoint,Iusedanotionofvalue-freenessafewtimes.Moreover,the
titleofthebookcontainsHvalue-freeeconomics.”NowIwillgiveonlyafew
wordsofexplanationbutwhatImeanbyvalue-freeeconomicsshouldbefully
understandableafterreadingthisbook.Ingeneral,Itreatvalue-freenessasone