The assessment for this module is made up of two components a coursework essay and an end of module examination. The coursework essay and the examination each make up 50% of the overall module mark.

The word limit for the coursework essay is 1800 words.

The coursework essay must address one of the following questions:

1. If a causalist, rather than a predictionist, view of science is adopted it is possible to recognise that social reality is open, dynamic and highly internally related and still maintain that an explanatorily powerful social science is entirely feasible. Discuss.

2. Even the achievements of laboratory experimentation ultimately constitute evidence supporting the view that what is essential to the scientific process is the movement from a surface phenomenon to its underlying cause rather than the search for regularities between events. Discuss.

3. Progress in many social science disciplines, perhaps most especially economics, has been constrained by mistaken notions about what is fundamental to scientific practice. Discuss.

4. Keyness account of the volatility of stock market prices developed in Chapter 12 of his General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is a compelling example of a social science explanation that conforms to a causalist account of the nature of science. Explore how this statement can be defended taking care to consider the key elements of Keyness analysis of the stock market.

Initial Reading

Essay 1.
1. Lawson, T, 2010, Economics and Science, The Transatlantic Journal for Economics and Philosophy, Issue 1. Available on Keats page.
2. Chalmers, A, 1992, Is a law reasonable to a Hume?, Cogito, Winter, pp 125-129. Available on Keats page.
3. Lawson, T, 2015a, Modern Economics: the problem and a solution, Chapter 2 in his Essays on the Nature and State of Modern Economics, Routledge, London. Available on Keats page.
4. Lawson, T, 1997, Economics and Reality, Routledge, London, chapters 2-4.
5. Collier, A, 1994, Critical Realism, Verso, London. Chapter 5

Essay 2.
1. Lawson, T, 2010, Economics and Science, The Transatlantic Journal for Economics and Philosophy, Issue 1. Available on Keats page.
2. Chalmers, A, 1992, Is a law reasonable to a Hume?, Cogito, Winter, pp 125-129. Available on Keats page.
3. Lawson, T, 2015a, Modern Economics: the problem and a solution, Chapter 2 in his Essays on the Nature and State of Modern Economics, Routledge, London. Available on Keats page.
4. Lawson, T, 1997, Economics and Reality, Routledge, London. Chapters 2-4.
5. Collier, A, 1994, Critical Realism, Verso, London, Chapter 2.

Essay 3.
1. Lawson, T, 2010, Economics and Science, The Transatlantic Journal for Economics and Philosophy, Issue 1. Available on Keats page.
2. Chalmers, A, 1992, Is a law reasonable to a Hume?, Cogito, Winter, pp 125-129. Available on Keats page.
3. Lawson, T, 2015a, Modern Economics: the problem and a solution, Chapter 2 in his Essays on the Nature and State of Modern Economics, Routledge, London. Available on Keats page.
4. Lawson, T, 1997, Economics and Reality, Routledge, London, chapters 2-4.

Essay 4.
1. Skidelsky, R, 2016, Introduction In R. Skidelsky, The Essential Keynes, Penguin.
2. Keynes, J. M, 1936, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Reprinted as The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes: The General Theory, Royal Economic Society, Vol VII, Macmillan, London. Chapter 12. Available on Keats page.
3. Lawson, T, 1995, Expectations and Economics in Dow, S and Hillard, J. eds, Keynes Knowledge and Uncertainty, Edward Elgar, Aldershot. Available on Keats page.
4. Crotty, J, 2019, Keynes Against Capitalism, Routledge London, chapter 17. Available on Keats page.