Cambridge's contribution to methodology in economics

Abstract

This chapter explores explicit contributions to economic methodology originating in Cambridge. These contributions were not all consistent with each other, the tensions being most evident in Marshall. Neville Keynes proved to be a major influence on the development of mainstream methodology. But there has been a more consistent methodological thread within Cambridge in the form of a ‘middle way’ (between inductivism and deductivism). This thread is traced from Newton, with a detour via Hume and Smith, through the development of economic methodology in Cambridge right up to the critical realism of the present day. Among the key figures considered here are Malthus, Marshall, and Maynard Keynes.