A epistemologia popperiana e sua aplicabilidade na teoria neoclássica

Abstract

This article has the main purpose of analyzing how the structure of Popper’s epistemologyis applied in the neoclassical economic theory. Thus it first discusses the scientific method suggested by Karl Popper. Lisboa (1997 and 1998), using this methodology, attempts to characterize the foundations of the neoclassic economic theory on a philosophical basis. It then describes the main difficulties of the scientific method indicated by Popperians, arguing that besides these obstacles there is another one, namely the difficulties of the mainstream economistsin grounding their scientific proposals in Popper’s recommendations. It concludes that despite Lisboa’s effort to ground the scientific philosophical structure of the neoclassical school in Popper’s proposal, he ends up using in fact an argument based on rhetoric. Key words: Karl Popper, neoclassical theory, philosophy of science.