This volume represents a contribution to the philosophy of economics with a distinctive point of view — the contributors have selected particular areas of economics and have probed these areas for the philosophical and methodological issues that they raise. The primary essays are written by philosophers concentrating on philosophical issues that arise at the level of the everyday theoretical practice of working economists. Commentary essays are provided by working economists responding to the philosophical arguments from the standpoint of their own disciplines. The volume thus represents something of an `experiment' in the philosophy of science, striving as it does to explore methodological issues across two research communities. The purpose of the volume is very specific: to stimulate a discussion of the epistemology and methodology of economics that works at the level of detail of existing `best practice' in economics today. The contributors have designed their contributions to stimulate productive conversation between philosophers and economists on topics in the methodology of economics.

Explores the philosophy of economics not by biting off abstract questions about the whole profession, but by focusing on the philosophical and methodological issues raised by particular areas of it. Philosophers present eight essays on issues that arise at the level of the everyday theoretical practice of working economists; economists in turn comment on the arguments based on their own practice and experience. The goal is not to establish a set of norms but to generate discussion from both theoretical and empirical starting points in such areas as econometrics, the Nash equilibrium, optimality, the theory of the firm, and development economics.
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