EKONOMIA FINANSOWA JAKO NAUKA NORMALNA: UJĘCIE KRYTYCZNE Z PERSPEKTYWY KONCEPCJI PARADYGMATÓW KUHNA ORAZ NAUKOWYCH PROGRAMÓW BADAWCZYCH LAKATOSA
FINANCIAL ECONOMICS AS A NORMAL SCIENCE: A CRITICAL APPROACH FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF KUHN’S CONCEPT OF PARADIGMS AND LAKATOS SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMMES

Summary/Abstract: The study of monetary phenomena and processes taking place in the economy is of interest to a wide range of representatives of the academic community. Researchers who analyse the phe- nomena and processes in question, and who invest effort in this area, consider it to be scientific activity, and are of the view that they are conducting scientific research. Does financial economics therefore use an original set of ontological and epistemological assumptions? If so, what deserves to be recognized as a paradigm of financial economics? This article attempts to assess finan- cial economics from the perspective of the philosophy of science. The answers to these questions will make it possible to isolate the essence of financial economics, thus defining its ontological boundaries, and to determine from the epistemological perspective whether there is a distinct method of financial economics. The article discusses financial economics from the perspective of the philosophy of science. In particular it follows Kuhn’s theoretical framework to identify and critically analyse paradigms of financial economics. The paper concludes that financial economics is a normal science, in the sense defined by Kuhn, as research arising from one or more scientific achievements of the past, which a given community of scientists currently accepts and treats as the foundation of its further practice. The paper indicates the fundamental works that constitute the hard core of financial economics in the sense of the assumptions of the scientific research programmes described by Lakatos.

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