Mainstream economics: searching where the light is

Abstract

The starting point of this paper is the question of how to explain mainstream economics' great level of acceptance in the face of its poor empirical track record. An explanation is provided in terms of a combination of unification and, most importantly, inference to the best explanation. This paper asks whether the appeal of mainstream economics to inference to the best explanation is justified and as a consequence questions one of the main reasons for the dominance of mainstream economics today. The final section integrates the ideas from the previous sections into a general framework for explanatory pluralism.

Keywords:

• explanatory pluralism
• inference to the best explanation
• mainstream economics
• unification