Theories in Business and Information Systems Engineering

Even though the idea of science enjoys an impressive reputation, there seems to be no precise conception of science. On the one hand, there is no unified definition of the extension of activities subsumed under the notion of science. According to the narrow conception that is common in Anglo-Saxon countries, science is restricted to those disciplines that investigate nature and aim at explanation and prediction of natural phenomena. A wider conception that can be found in various European countries includes social sciences, the humanities and engineering. On the other hand and related to the first aspect, there is still no general consensus on the specific characteristics of scientific discoveries and scientific knowledge

Rediscovering the history of economic thought

A recent issue of Oxford Economic Papers used the fiftieth anniversary of the British Hitory of Economic Thought Conference to reflect on the reawakening of interest in the history of economic ideas that has accompanied the movement of the twentieth century from ‘the present’ to ‘the past’. Roger Backhouse and James Forder look at reasons for that reawakening and add some arguments of their own in support of the trend