"F-Thesis": A Critical Analysis On The Problem Of Economic Assumption

"Positive Economic Methodology" of Friedman is a classical economic methodology article, which contains two theses about economic philosophy. "F-first thesis" means that the more meaningful the theory seems, the more unrealistic its assumption becomes; "F-second thesis" means that the only relevant standard to test a theory or hypothesis is comparison of its prediction with experiment of assumption. The two "F-thesis" contains four basic propositions about economic assumption. (1) the problem on realism of assumption (2) the problem on "ideal experiment method "of assumption (3) the problem on application field of hypothesis (4) the problem on test of hypothesis. Heated arguments have happened around these essential propositions in foreign academic circles and there is a lot of misunderstanding in relevant works involved in economic assumptions in home academic circles. Through exploring Friedman's text and sorting out the arguments, the article re-studies relevant questions on philosophy. We hope that the article can play a little role in rational studying economic methodology. And we conclude that the essence of Friedman's methodology is "falsification-instrumentalism".