Misapplication of the Scientific Approach
Friedrich Hayek ’s acknowledgment speech for the first Nobel Prize in economics was titled “ The Pretense of Knowledge ”. In it, he condemned the increasing tendency of economists to use the scientific approach even though it made no sense in economics ! Yet economics was increasingly embracing that very approach. Why? Hayek felt that many economists craved for the respect accorded to the physical sciences. So they decided to do what the scientists did: base everything on measurements. Some economists even went so far as to say that economic theories should only consist of measurable parameters. That slowly degenerated into basing theories on what was available to be measured . If it couldn ’t be measured, ignore it. Better to be wrong with a scientific approach than right without one. Measurability trumped truth value! Qualitative knowledge was ignored; quantitative knowledge was king. But there are plenty of fields where measurements don’t convey much. Or anything at all. Areas ...