Critical notes on the methodological debate between orthodoxy and heterodoxy at “Ilustríssima”

Abstract

The objective of this article is to argue that the methodological debate in Economics still contains positivist trends, which have already been surpassed in philosophy of science to give place to what currently constitutes a consensus: it is not possible to interpret and act on the world without a previous conception which contains judgment of values, beliefs, assumptions, etc., or, in other words, it is not possible to interpret and act on the world without an ontology. If the orthodoxy wing still believes to represent the most positivistic axiological neutrality, a good part of the heterodoxy declares that these ontological conceptions about the world are, ineliminable, but also immeasurable. It is argued that the problematic consequence of this positioning is that it renders irrelevant any deeper conceptions about reality. The text then commits itself to an analysis that points out criticisms to both sides of the methodological debate in “Ilustríssima.”