The New Instrument

In 1620 the British philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon published a remarkable text entitled Novum Organum — Latin for The New Instrument. Bacon’s work aimed to update Aristotle’s classic work on logic and syllogism, the Organon.

In doing this Bacon was outlining a new, superior mode of logic to the reader. This new mode of logic was, of course, what we have come today to regard the scientific method — a method that relies as much on empirical evidence and testing as it does on deductive logic.

Most economic commentary and theory today lays where syllogism and logic lay before Bacon published The New Instrument, in a medieval metaphysics that was completely ungrounded in the world in which people actually lived. The aim of our New Instrument, then, is to break through this obscurantism and sophistry in order to get a better idea of what is really going on.

Most of the work on this site has been published on other sites before — especially on Yves Smith’s wonderful Naked Capitalism site under my own name (Philip Pilkington). But I thought that it might be worth creating a website where I could collect all my own work — what the reader sees before their eyes is the product of that desire.

I only hope that people enjoy reading these essays and articles as much as I enjoyed researching and writing them — and who knows, maybe they’ll inspire the reader to look contemporary mainstream economic dogma in the face and realise that it is 95% lies, ideology and nonsense.

Interviews Debunking Economics: An Interview with Steve Keen – Part II Debunking Economics: An Interview with Steve Keen – Part I The End of Loser Liberalism: An Interview with Dean Baker Part II The End of Loser Liberalism: An Interview with Dean Baker Part I The History of Greed: An Interview with Jeff Madrick	Theory The Austrian Disease -- Poor Scholarship, A Priori Bias A scribbler's response to Lavoie on MMT Libertarianism and the Leap of Faith: The Origins of a Political Cult A Point of Real Interest in the Latest Fed Minutes Neoclassical Dogma: How Economists Rationalise Their Hatred of Free Choice
History as It Happens The Austrian Disease -- Poor Scholarship, A Priori Bias A scribbler's response to Lavoie on MMT Libertarianism and the Leap of Faith: The Origins of a Political Cult Smart Taxes 2012 Budget Submission: Jobs Program The IMF-ECB ‘Plan’: Fig-Leaf Upon Fig-Leaf	Policies and Other Proposals The Austrian Disease -- Poor Scholarship, A Priori Bias A scribbler's response to Lavoie on MMT Libertarianism and the Leap of Faith: The Origins of a Political Cult Smart Taxes 2012 Budget Submission: Jobs Program The IMF-ECB ‘Plan’: Fig-Leaf Upon Fig-Leaf