Introduction to Mark Blaug - Rebel with Many Causes

The first edition of Mark’s Economic Theory in Retrospect (1962) includes a chapter on methodology, ‘A Methodological Postscript,’ which starts with four big epistemological and methodological questions: ‘What do economists know? How much does economics explain? What are the principles upon which economic theories have been accepted or rejected? What features have characterized endurable economic ideas?’ The first three questions are the standard questions with which you can open any textbook on economic methodology, including his own. The last one though is not. While the first three questions came to be tackled in one way or another, the fourth – for Mark the most fascinating question – remained an unresolved enigma.