Asad Zaman

After my Ph.D. from Stanford in 1978, I started my career as an Economist at U. Penn. In the course of my research, I kept running into problems and puzzles not resolvable within the theoretical paradigms I had been taught. Eventually I came to the realization that the entire discipline of modern Economics was built on flawed foundations. That led me to the study of methodology and epistemology, to understand how a field analogous to phrenology in the modern times could survive and replicate itself, despite strong conflicts with empirical evidence. I continue to be engaged in the attempt to rebuild economics on new foundations, and have made significant progress towards this goal. I think all of the social sciences need similar rethinking, but I do not have the time or knowledge required to do that task.