Re-Evaluation of Milton Friedman's View of Instrumentalism

Fazli, Payam

doi:10.22054/wph.2024.77264.2213

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Payam Fazli

Ph.D. Student of Philosophy of Islamic Economics, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22054/wph.2024.77264.2213

Abstract

The effects of philosophical concepts can be seen in various fields of science. One of the areas of influence of philosophy on economics has been around methodological concepts and epistemology. It seems that prominent economists of the 20th century were not without this influence. One of the philosophical concepts affecting Friedman's methodology is the concept of instrumentalism. This concept is one of the challenging and important topics that has been considered in Friedman's economics article. The use of this word and concept in the case of Friedman's article has been a controversial issue and has led to the emergence of challenging discussions in this regard. In this article, the correctness of attributing this word to Friedman's methodology has been discussed. The findings of the research show that there were elements of instrumentalism in Friedman's article and the presence of these elements of instrumentalism in Friedman's article has caused many to use this word about Friedman's methodology. Despite the existence of some commonalities, Friedman's instrumentalism has significant differences from conventional philosophical instrumentalism. Philosophical instrumentalism means a philosophical approach that has been proposed against the current of realism, but Friedman's instrumentalism does not fundamentally oppose realism and is mostly stopped in the methodological field. If instrumentalism means Friedman's use of theories as a tool to achieve the goal of prediction, then Friedman can be described as an instrumentalist; but if we use this word in its philosophical meaning, Friedman has a significant distance from this type of instrumentalism. Paying attention to this subtle distinction can prevent many misunderstandings regarding Friedman's methodology.

Keywords

Main Subjects

philosophy

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Wisdom And Philosophy

Re-Evaluation of Milton Friedman's View of Instrumentalism

References

References

Volume 20, Issue 77
March 2024
Pages 141-162

Re-Evaluation of Milton Friedman's View of Instrumentalism

References

References

Volume 20, Issue 77March 2024Pages 141-162

Volume 20, Issue 77
March 2024
Pages 141-162