Tool-box or toy-box? hard obscurantism in economic modeling

Jon Elster

pp. 2159-2184

in: Synthese 193 (7), 2016.

Abstract

“Hard obscurantism” is a species of the genus scholarly obscurantism. A rough intensional definition of hard obscurantism is that models and procedures become ends in themselves, dissociated from their explanatory functions. In the present article, I exemplify and criticize hard obscurantism by examining the writings of eminent economists and political scientists.