Brian Epstein has recently argued that a thoroughly microfoundationalist approach towards economics is unconvincing for metaphysical reasons. Generally, Epstein argues that for an improvement in the methodology of social science we must adopt social ontology as the foundation of social sciences; that is, the standing microfoundationalist debate could be solved by fixing economics’ ontology. However, as I show in this paper, fixing the social ontology prior to the process of model construction is optional instead of necessary and that metaphysical-ontological commitments are often the outcome of model construction, not its starting point. By focusing on the practice of modeling in economics the paper provides a useful inroad into the debate about the role of metaphysics in the natural and social sciences more generally.

布赖恩·爱泼斯坦（Brian Epstein）最近争辩说，出于形而上学的原因，彻底的微观基础主义经济学方法令人信服。总的来说，爱泼斯坦认为，为了改善社会科学的方法论，我们必须采用社会本体论作为社会科学的基础。也就是说，可以通过修正经济学的本体论来解决长期存在的微观基础主义的争论。但是，正如我在本文中所展示的，在模型构建过程之前固定社会本体是可选的，而不是必要的，并且形而上学本体论的承诺通常是结果。模型构建，而不是其起点。通过侧重于经济学中的建模实践，本文为更广泛地讨论形而上学在自然科学和社会科学中的作用提供了有益的介入。