An editor of the Real World Economics Review writes:
"There is no science which uses axioms and logical deductions to derive scientific theory."
Here I counter that ballistics is a science and that it is deductive, based on three axioms proposed by Leonhard Euler. There are many other examples of sciences deduced from axioms.
The editors of the RWER and the organization that publishes it, the Post-Autistic Economics Network (now calling itself the World Economics Association), tout themselves as promoting pluralism.
The dictionary defines pluralism as "a theory that there is more than one basic substance or principle."
Yet in actual practice, pluralism means banning all mathematicians except statisticians. Pluralists today are fully defined as those people who believe that statistics is the ONLY principle. The belief in a single principle is correctly called monism, not pluralism.
So my question is: Why doesn't pluralism include deductivism?
Research Critique of Tony Lawson on Neoclassical Economics
Amazing question Victor
As you know, logical arguments are not necessarily contingent upon empirical testing of the truth value of the premises. Deductivisim is not rooted in empirical data and is an abstract phenomenon . Hence extralogical elements like Intellect, discovery and heuristic thinking could be employed to assert the truth value of premises.
Intuition and even practical experiences could functions as the foundations and then supported by more strict solid logical arguments. This lack of initial ''logical quantifiable measurable empirical '' basis might be a reason why claims have been made no to include it in pluralism , Which, to my opinion, is unwarranted and debatable. I believe bottom-up and top-down argumentation are not necessarily mutually exclusive, rather, they could be employed effectively in an eclectic manner.
BTW, our article with Sonja Elsegood titled ''Using computer supported reasoning mapping to teach EFL learners critical reasoning and academic writing'' might offer some relevant reflections.
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