Fallibilism, liberalism and Stilwell's advocacy for pluralism in economics : Edward Mariyani-Squire and Margaret Moussa

This article examines avenues for resolving what appears to be an inherent tension in the fallibilist argument for pluralism in economics. Fallibilism is the strongest argument for pluralism because it recognises that any one theory is likely to be incomplete and may contain hidden errors. However fallibilism undermines itself in advocating paradigm pluralism because it implicitly accepts that scientific inquiry can lead to paradigm monism. We consider definitions of 'scientific' and the limits of liberal pluralism in resolving this tension, focusing on the contributions of Australia's foremost advocate of pluralism, Frank Stilwell (2002, 2005, 2006a, 2006b, 2011).