Truth and Expediency: Some Introductory Philosophical Observations

Economists and other social scientists have recently been heard to say that they are not interested in truth; that what matters is that their papers are interesting, persuasive, or suggesting new ideas. The purpose of this chapter is to outline some of the developments in philosophy and the sciences which led to this devaluation of the concept truth and to throw light on the consequences of abandoning it. It is needless to say that the limited purpose of this chapter imposes on the discussion some inevitable simplifications which would be unacceptable in a more complete historical survey. The intention here is to draw attention to the connection between the scientific approach in different disciplines which may have affected the historical observations in the preceding chapters.