"For roughly 250 years, from William Petty to Keynes, the overriding aim of political economy and economics was the clarification and guidance of policy decisions. In Changing Aims in Economics, Terence Hutchison explores the fundamental shift in the aims and claims of economists which has been discernible since around 1950." "Increasing ambiguity and obscurantism regarding the aims of economics has brought about increasing chaos with regard to methodological principles, together with profound changes in academic curricula. For methodological and educational principles both must depend on views regarding the aims of the subject or the job one wants it to do. If mathematical aestheticism or an amusing 'conversation' are to be of prime importance among the aims of economics then the methodological principles respected by economists - if any - can be very different from what they need to be if the overriding aim continues to be the guidance of private and public policy based on less unreliable predictions." "The book will be valuable for upper-level students and researchers in the history of economic thought, economic theory and methodology. It will also be of interest to all those who strive for clarity and realism regarding questions of economic knowledge and of economic ignorance."--BOOK JACKET.