HES: RE: DISC--Answers to Mises query.

[Mayhew, Anne]

As the interesting discussion of Krugman's assertion about pre-1936
economic thought has reverted to a discussion of Mises and axiomatic
analysis, I have stuck with some rereading of pre-1936 thought that I
have been doing and came across this description by Joseph Dorfman of
Henry Carter Adams' view " . . . of the 'astronomical method' of
investigation in the social sciences.  He [Adams] described this method
as building a system of thought on the assumption that a certain line is
staight, and then taking a 'squint to see how crooked it is.'"  [This is
from Dorfman's Introductory Essay to Adams _Two Essays on the Relation
of the State to Industrial Action and Economics and Jurisprudence_.]

I post this in the hopes that it may cause others to smile as I did and
with some hope that more attention can be given to the fine practice of
squinting at departures from axiomatic models.

Anne Mayhew