After all no one has ever seen a demand curve, or the set of data in the real world that make it up.
So how do the empirical guys accept the supply and demand graphs as meaningful?
Don’t positivists pretty much reject economics out of hand?
A google for “economics positivism” gives 400K results.
Don’t know much about it, but isn’t the main saly against praxeology that it isn’t empirical, not built on facts?
Edit: first result on google says:
Current Views on Economic Positivism
© Lawrence A. Boland
Few economists today will be found waving the banner of ‘economic positivism’ or ‘positive
economics’. Does this mean that economic positivism is dead? Certainly not. Positive economics
is now so pervasive that every competing view (except hard-core mathematical economics) has
been virtually eclipsed. The absence of methodology flag-waving is thus easy to understand. There
is no territory to dispute and thus no need to wave one’s flag.
The dominance of economic positivism is abundantly evident in current textbooks. Almost
every introductory textbook explains the difference between ‘positive’ and ‘normative’ economics
and tries to make it clear that economists are interested in positive economics and capable of
fulfilling the demands of economic positivism. Why should economists be interested in positive
economics? And has economics fulfilled the demands of economic positivism? These two
questions will be the focus of this essay
I suspect they’d say it’s some representation of what’s known empirically. In any case, the positivism is really only for methodological debates - in practice most economists draw upon ‘economic laws’, even if they deny they’re a priori. For them the key is to not even enter into the methodological debate.
EDIT: Dave, I’m pretty sure Boland has conflated two different terms into ‘positivism’ (I’m sure you know the difference between positive and positivism). I can’t see how economics can be normative, anyway - it really has nothing to do with ends…
In answer to your OP, they would probably say they couldn’t care less about their input assumptions as long as they are good at making empirical predictions. Everything else is “dogma.”