Title: Defining economic pluralism: ethical norm or scientific imperative

Authors: Arne Heise

Addresses: Center for Economic and Sociological Studies (CESS), University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Abstract: The state of contemporary economics has been a subject of discussion even before the most recent global financial crisis. The discipline's one-sidedness has frequently been lamented and frequent calls have been made for its pluralisation. Nevertheless, there is neither a consensus over the form of pluralism that is required (whether theoretical, methodological, or paradigmatic pluralism, for example), nor agreement among economists over the underlying diagnosis of a lack of pluralism. Even the justification for this pluralistic norm - i.e., whether it should be seen in terms of an ethics of fairness and tolerance or as the imperative of academic freedom - remains disputed and is often unclear. This paper aims to shed some light on these ambiguities.

Keywords: pluralism; philosophy of science; heterodoxy; orthodoxy; mainstream.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPEE.2017.083556

International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education, 2017 Vol.8 No.1, pp.18 - 41

Received: 16 May 2016
Accepted: 03 Nov 2016

Published online: 10 Apr 2017 *

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