Philosophy of Economics: The Constructivist and Scientific Realist Interpretation of Macroeconomics

Abstract

The contemporary methodological debate focuses on studying the relation between models and reality regarding idealization and resemblance. Limited attention is put on the process of model building. The study focuses its attention on the latter. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, we reconstruct the philosophical presuppositions of the participants of a cliometric debate. Second, we employ the Fleckian constructivist philosophy with the aim of offering an account of how econometric facts are constructed. Contrary to our reconstruction of the process of ‘observing’ macroeconomic phenomena, econometricians ground their viewpoint in the scientific-realist and neopositivist philosophies of science.