MEI Economic theory (part 1) test work

Question 1. Methodology and methods of economic theory.

Economic theory studies the relationships and patterns that develop in the process of economic growth with limited resources necessary for the life and development of society. Specificity of the subject assumes the specifics of the methodology and methods of research.
Methodology is a general approach to the study of economic phenomena, a system of methods and methods of analysis with a certain philosophical approach: subjective, dialectical-materialistic, empirical, rationalistic. At present, rationalistic methodology dominates in science, which involves studying and discovering objective rational laws of economic civilization on the basis of a holistic study of the economic system regardless of the class composition of the population. As a tool used mathematical apparatus, econometrics, cybernetics. The result of the study is economic models, schemes, graphs.
The methodology is based on methods. A method is a set of methods, methods, principles by which the ways of achieving goals are determined. If the subject of science and its methodology are characterized by what is being researched, then the method is how it is explored. One follows from the other. The reality of the results depends on the correctly adopted method.
In economic theory, various methods of cognition are used: positive, normative, systematization of factors, scientific abstraction, experiment, etc.
The positive method presupposes the creation of a certain philosophy of economic science, the formulation of knowledge about the economy, categories and laws of the development of the economic environment on the basis of the description and systematization of factors, experience, market observations, etc. Thus, the philosophy of economic science forms the doctrine of the equilibrium and evolution of command- administrative and market, their structure and infrastructure.
The normative method of cognition involves an analysis of a person´s practical activity, based on the principles of maximum efficiency. The main principle of this method is that it is aimed at obtaining results that benefit all subjects of economic activity. The application of this method involves the use of mathematical methods for solving extreme problems at a minimum or maximum, solving system situations and problems.
The development of economic science in the modern period involves the use of such a method as the collection of information, its analysis and synthesis.
One of the methods actively used in economic science is the method of ascent from the abstract to the concrete, from essence to phenomenon. If we try to preserve for the scientific evaluation all the essence of the essential, and to find the main determining movement, connections and economic laws, then one can become entangled in the diversity of the phenomenon and miss the essence. Abstraction will allow to highlight that basis, the cause-effect relationship, which makes it possible to control the situation.
The method of scientific abstraction becomes very important in general economic theory. Social life can not be studied in the laboratory. Scientific abstraction is a mental abstraction (abstraction) from nonessential aspects, properties of phenomena and the search for the main, the most essential in them.
Abstract thinking generates a method of analysis and synthesis.
Analysis of economic phenomena involves the dismemberment of the phenomenon under study into separate elements and the study of each element as a necessary integral part of the whole. The synthesis assumes that the phenomenon is initially studied as consisting of different parts, and then the connection of the elements is studied into a single whole and a general conclusion is drawn.