Some Principles Of Heterodox Economics

1. Methodology (rather than just method) is important to understanding economics.
2. Human actors are social and less than perfectly rational, driven by habits, routines, culture and tradition
3. Economic systems are complex, evolving and unpredictable - and consequently equilibrium models should be viewed sceptically.
4. While theories of the individual are useful, so are theories of aggregate or collective outcomes. Further, neither the individual nor the aggregate can be understood in isolation from the other.
5. History and time are important (reflecting (3)).
6. All economic theories are fallible and, reflecting (4), there is contemporary relevance of the history of thought to understanding economics.
7. Pluralism, i.e. multiple perspectives, is advocated (following on from (3) and (6)).
8. Formal mathematical and statistical methods should be removed from their perceived position as the supreme method - but not abandoned - and supplemented by other methods and data types.
9. Facts and values are inseperable.
10. Power is an important determinant of economic outcomes.

-- Andrew Mearman (2007). "Teaching Heterodox Economics Concepts", The Economics Network (June)

(I previously posted a quotation of ten principles of institutional economics.)