Main trends of research in the social and human ... - unesdoc - Unesco

CHAPTER IV
Economics
INTRODUCTION
To determine the directions in which science is developing at a particular time,
or to define its trends and methodological problems, is always difficult. It is
necessary to simplify : the treatment that complex inter-relationships require
must often be sacrificed to the exigencies of classification. And even from the
point of view of separating what is positively known from what is only unverified
hypothesis or even unexplored territory, the human sciences - including econom-
ics - still lag behind the natural sciences.
Provided one realizes that the value of doing so is relative and limited, it is
none the less useful, from time to time, to cast an eye backwards and forwards.
An attempt to make a hierarchy of the basic problems that face Contemporary
economics helps in making methodological evaluations and showing up various
border-line problems. The present study is, naturally, subjective as regards the
subjects dealt with and the examples and authors selected to illustrate specific
points.
Three groups of problems are dealt with, after a short synoptic account of the
ways in which economics has developed during the last few decades - decades so
rich in economically important and even dramatic events; and, against this back-
ground, the possibilities of integrating contemporary economic science - hither-
to fragmented among a number of rival schools - are discussed.
Part I discusses the nature of economics and its place among the sciences of
men - necessary since economists themselves do not agree as to what comes
within their terms of reference, not to mention the fact that more than one at-
tempt has been made to annex economics or subordinate it to other disciplines,
and particularly praxiology, i.e. a general theory of efficient action.'
Part II deals with the modern economist at work: the main lines of thought
and methods used in various branches of economic research, and such special
problems as, for example, the measurability of economic phenomena. The ob-
ject is to provide comparative material for use in connexion with other disci-
plines covered in the whole report. Emphasis is laid on the importance of inter-