Imagining the Imaginable: A Reinterpretation of the Function of Economists’ Concern about Structura
Abstract
By using a metatheoretical interpretation of the development of international trade
theory as an example, I illustrate that, as is manifested in the practices of economic
theorization, a theoretical representation can be decomposed into two component
representations: a formal representation and a causal narrative representation. I further
maintain that, with respect to both component representations, the concern of
isomorphism is important in that it is the guiding idea that underlies economists’
practice of identifying both an adequate formal model and a plausible causal story to
represent the targeted phenomenon. As a result, it can be argued that the nature of the
representational relation is manifested in the practices of economists as they imagine
the imaginable causal stories on the basis of imaginative causal structures depicted in
the causal models of the targeted phenomenon.
【Keywords】economic theorizing; representation; semantic approach; structural
isomorphism; causal narrative; imagination; causal structure; international trade theory
作者姓名:
Szu-Ting Chen
期刊名稱:
Journal of Economic Methodology
出版年份:
2011年 3月
期別及起訖頁數:
Vol.18 No.1 pp. 53-78
文章分類:
期刊論文
Imagining the imaginable.pdf