ȁȄȁ Partʺ: Economicsa science without ultimate purpose or meaning. It has allowed itself to
become captive of the technical tools that it employs without keeping
track of just what it is that the tools are to be used for. In a very real
sense the economists of theȀȈȇǿs are illiterate in basic principles of their
own discipline.... Ļeir interest lies in the purely intellectual properties
of the models with which they work, and they seem to get their kicks
from the discovery of proofs of propositions relevant only to their own
fantasy lands. (ȀȈȇȂ/ȀȈȇȇ, pp.Ȁȁȅ–ȀȁȆ)Maurice Allais, a mathematical economist who won the Nobel Prize
two years after Buchanan did, shares his skepticism. For almost forty-five
years, Allais said inȀȈȇȈ, economic literature has featured “completely
artificial mathematical models detached from reality.” Allais recommends
mathematics to economists not for its own sake “but as a means of explor-
ing and analyzing concrete reality.” When neither a theory nor its impli-
cations “can be confronted with the real world, that theory is devoid of
any scientific interest.”
In a broader context, Garrett Hardin (ȀȈȇȅ, pp.ȀȆȄ–ȀȆȅ) observes an
information glut. “A substantial and growing proportion of the scien-
tific literature is pure jam [in the sense of traffic jam], the consequence
of egotistic scientists putting out multiple, repetitive publications in an
effort to be noticed.... Progress is impeded. Society suffers.” Referring to
the examination system for the Mandarins of imperial China, Michael
Walzer (ȀȈȇȂ, p.ȀȃȀ) notes that “examiners increasingly stressed memo-
rization, philology, and calligraphy, and candidates paid more attention
to old examination questions than to the meaning of the old books. What
was tested, increasingly, was the ability to take a test.” In today’s aca-
demic world, similarly, what gets rewarded seems to be the ability to get
rewarded.
Without charging specific individuals with misconduct or reprehensi-
ble motives, we may remind ourselves about gamesmanship. Occasion-
ally the writer of an article will try to butter up prospective referees
or otherwise engage in politicking to get it published.ȀȀWhat is more
ȀȀBart Kosko may be exaggerating but not practicing sheer invention:
Career science, like career politics, depends as much on career maneuvering, postur-
ing, and politics as it depends on research and the pursuit of truth. Few know that
when they start the game of science. But they learn it soon enough. (ȀȈȈȂ, p.ȃǿ)
Politics lies behind literature citations and omissions, academic promotions, gov-
ernment appointments, contract and grant awards, conference addresses and con-
ference committee-member choices, editorial-board selection for journals and book