The Truthiness of Economics Positive and Normative Honesty

Date of Award

2008

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Elliott, Catherine

Keywords

Friedman, Milton, Law and Economics, Methodology

Area of Concentration

Economics

Abstract

Positive and normative are two terms that are introduced at the beginning of almost any economics course. However, who has defined them, truly and rigorously? They are consistently used in overlapping or contradictory manners. They have so much politics, passion, and pure emotion packed into them that they are no longer useful. This thesis attempts to prove that point through a careful study of the definitions of the words, the literature discussing the definitions, and the uses they are put towards. Through direct discussion of opinion and fact present in economic papers, we can achieve greater objectivity. This can be facilitated by creating a standard �scientific� format for analytic economics papers where the paper opens with a disclaimer, stating background information that might bias the views of the author, and then continues with a section of facts and data (if necessary), a section of assumptions, and finally, ends with a section of conclusions.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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