On Critical Realism and Mainstream

this paper I focus mainly on the last mentioned line of inquiry. More specifically, I take as my point of departure an exchange between D. W. Hands and T. Lawson on this topic in S. Fleetwood's excellent compilation of various articles defending and elaborating upon, as well as evaluating and criticising, the critical realist project within the discipline of economics (Fleetwood 1999). The issues at hand in this exchange concern aspects of the relations between critical realism and mainstream economics and the possible merits of ontological reflection more generally. It is my purpose here to sort out and evaluate some of the arguments offered by the two debaters and to reflect somewhat further upon the project of critical realist-inspired studies of the ontological presuppositions of mainstream economic