Review of Arjo Klamer: Speaking of Economics

If Milton Friedman tests a hypothesis in the woods, and no one is there to accuse him of an endogeneity problem, is he really doing economics? Arjo Klamer, barring some qualifications, would probably answer in the negative. In his Speaking of Economics Klamer espouses at length the model of a conversation to understand the nature of economic science. Economics, he argues, is a social and linguistic endeavor characterized by reciprocal attentiveness. Friedman's woodland econometrics—predicated as it is on established norms of sound science—appears nonsensical when severed from the context of making a point to an audience that can respond. The affinity here for McCloskey's well-known work on rhetoric should be obvious. Klamer's approach explicitly extends the valuable insights of her rhetorical turn, adding listening to speaking to arrive at the metaphor of conversation.