Realism from the ‘ lands of Kaleva ’ : an interview with Uskali Mäki

USKALI MÄKI (Helsinki, 1951) is a philosopher of science and a social scientist, and one of the forerunners of the strong wave of research on the philosophy and methodology of economics that has been expanding during the last three decades. His research interests and academic contributions cover many topics in the philosophy of economics, such as realism and realisticness, idealisation, scientific modelling, causation, explanation, rhetoric, the sociology and economics of economics, and the foundations of new institutional and Austrian economics. He is a co-editor of The handbook of economic methodology (1998); Economics and methodology: crossing boundaries (1998); Rationality, institutions and economic methodology (1993). And the editor of two compilations of essays that have become highly influential to the shaping of the field: The economic world view: studies in the ontology of economics (2001), and Fact and fiction in economics: realism, models, and social construction (2002). Currently, Uskali Mäki is academy professor at the Academy of Finland. He is also director of the project Trends and Tensions of Intellectual Integration (TINT), based at the department of social and moral philosophy, University of Helsinki. Before settling in Helsinki, he was professor of philosophy of science at Erasmus University Rotterdam from 1995 to 2006, where he was academic director of the Erasmus Institute for Philosophy and Economics (EIPE) since its foundation in 1997. He was co-editor of the and has been a research area coordinator for the European Association of Evolutionary Political Economy since 1992. EJPE is pleased to present this interview with Professor Mäki, in which he offers some reflections on the aims, current situation, and prospects of the field, as well as on the development of his own thought about the philosophy and methodology of economics.