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How-Possibly Explanations in Economics: Anything Goes?

Grüne-Yanoff, Till and Verreault-Julien, Philippe (2020) How-Possibly Explanations in Economics: Anything Goes? [Preprint]

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Abstract

The recent literature on economic models has rejected the traditional requirement that their epistemic value necessary depended on them offering actual explanations of phenomena. Contributors to that literature have argued that many models do not aim at providing how-actually explanations, but instead how-possibly explanations. However, how to assess the epistemic value of HPEs remains an open question. We present a programmatic approach to answering it. We first introduce a conceptual framework that distinguishes how-actually explanations from how-possibly explanations and that further differentiates between epistemic and objective how-possibly explanations. Secondly, we show how that framework can be used for methodological appraisal as well as for understanding methodological controversies.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Grüne-Yanoff, Tillgryne@kth.se
Verreault-Julien, Philippep.verreault-julien@lse.ac.uk0000-0001-5816-8947
Keywords: how-possibly explanations, epistemic possibility, objective possibility, economics
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Economics
General Issues > Explanation
General Issues > Models and Idealization
Depositing User: Dr. Philippe Verreault-Julien
Date Deposited: 23 Nov 2020 03:26
Last Modified: 23 Nov 2020 03:26
Item ID: 18423
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Economics
General Issues > Explanation
General Issues > Models and Idealization
Date: 20 November 2020
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/18423

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