TRUTH VS. ILLUSION IN MODERN ECONOMICS

Abstract

Based on the modern methodology of economic research, the "truth vs. illusion" problem in economics is analyzed. For this purpose, the article reveals the specifics of the methodology of searching for truth as opposed to manifestations of illusions in the context of the epistemology of studying the socio-economic reality, which is dynamically developing and constantly becoming more complex. It is shown that in the case of illusions, behind the external semblance of objectivity, methodological flaws, theoretical errors and a distorted perception of economic reality actually occur. The principle of polycriteriality for the demarcation of economic truth and illusion (ontological, epistemological, institutional criteria and instrumental features) is proposed. It is substantiated that the results of research in economics should be ontologically and epistemologically confirmed by the logic of economic categories’ deployment.

In the context of modern economics’s pluralism, the methodological approaches of neoclassical orthodoxy and heterodox theories to the search for economic truth are outlined. It is revealed that neoclassical orthodoxy successfully produces economic knowledge for conditions of social stability and sustainability, market equilibrium, rational choice, when transitional economic processes associated with nonlinear economic development, socialization and anticipatory institutional changes are not a priority. It is shown that neoclassical orthodoxy is overloaded with neoliberal illusions. The possibilities of illusions’ occurrence in heterodox economics are usually associated with the narrowing of research object.

The importance of economic fact (practical, empirical and scientific, theoretical) for the "truth vs. illusion" problem is substantiated. Based on the identification of facts and their interpretation, the latest trends in the development of the generative artificial intelligence (genAI) economy are considered. The fact of the genAI economy’s existence is interpreted using a phase-by-phase approach, which allows to identify and analyze the organic unity of the four phases of this economic system. It is shown that constant abuses in the subject-object quadrilateral “digital companies – digital platforms – artificial intelligence – users (consumers)” become the main source of platform capital’s monopoly profit.