A central debate in the philosophy of science concerns the purpose of scientific theories: should they aim to represent the world as accurately as possible or is it sufficient for them to produce useful predictions? Milton Friedman’s influential essay The Methodology of Positive Economics argues for the latter, suggesting that the primary goal of a theory is to generate accurate predictions, regardless of whether its assumptions reflect reality. This instrumentalist-empiricist view has had a profound impact on economics, encouraging the development of models that may not be true in their assumptions, but are judged primarily on their predictive success. However, this approach risks reducing economics to a mere “black box” tool for prediction, devoid of genuine insight into the underlying

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