ABSTRACT

The recent literature on economic models has rejected the traditional requirement that their epistemic value necessary depended on them offering actual explanations of phenomena. Contributors to that literature have argued that many models do not aim at providing how-actually explanations, but instead how-possibly explanations. However, how to assess the epistemic value of HPEs remains an open question. We present a programmatic approach to answering it. We first introduce a conceptual framework that distinguishes how-actually explanations from how-possibly explanations and that further differentiates between epistemic and objective how-possibly explanations. Secondly, we show how that framework can be used for methodological appraisal as well as for understanding methodological controversies.

抽象的

最近关于经济模型的文献拒绝了传统的要求，即它们的认识论价值取决于它们提供现象的实际解释的传统要求。该文献的撰稿人认为，许多模型的目的不是提供实际解释，而是提供可能的解释。但是，如何评估HPE的认知价值仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。我们提出了一种程序化的方法来回答它。我们首先介绍一个概念框架，该框架区分实际解释和可能解释，并进一步区分认知解释和客观可能解释。其次，我们展示了该框架如何用于方法论评估以及理解方法论的争议。