of the 1990's. (The book symbol means a reference to the writing of other economists, or a detailed explanation, as in a footnote). In most studies the first step is to answer the questions: what and how? That is, what is the subject matter to be studied? What is economics? And then: how is economics studied? What methods do economists use?
In both of those things, this text will be a bit old-fashioned. I will define economics very much as the classical economists of the eighteenth and nineteenth century defined it. Old-fashioned as this is, it is also right up to date with some of the best economic research of the 1990's. (The book symbol means a reference to the writing of other economists, or a detailed explanation, as in a footnote).
As to the "how," the big question is the role of scientific method. Is economics a science? Certainly it has a scientific aspect, but we believe it has other aspects as well. The scientific aspect of economics has developed enormously during the twentieth century. All the same, there are other aspects that go beyond science, and we must deal with those aspects too. Thus, we will need an approach that can deal with the nonscientific aspects. In this, again, we find ourselves closer to the classical economists of previous century, though we are also up to date with current researchers who say that economics is a conversation in which all aspects, scientific and otherwise, can and must be discussed.
Of course, we do not want to turn the clock back. Economists have learned many very important things in the twentieth century. But -- as we move toward the twenty-first -- one objective of this text is to put this learning in the context of the longer and broader conversation.
This chapter will enlarge on the what and how. First: what is economics? Then: how do economists reason?
Definitions
