Kaldor on method: a challenge to contemporary methodology

Abstract

This paper examines Kaldor's methodological critique of orthodox economic theory in the light of recent developments in the philosophy of science. Lawson has provided the most philosophically sophisticated interpretation of Kaldor's method ological work available to date from a critical realist perspective. We argue in this paper that critical realism, while clearly superior to existing orthodox approaches, is philosophically too restrictive and an alternative framework, causal holism, is developed. Causal holism, based on a synthesis of Quine's holism and van Fraassen's constructive empiricism, provides a methodological reconstruction of Kaldor that is ultimately more compatible with his 'non-monist' critique of orthodox equilibrium economics.