ECON 248 CERTIFICATION EVALUATION
2026 QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS FULL
SCORE A+
●● Does Schumpeter believe values necessarily influence scientific
practice.
Answer: No. The two are separate. Doing scientific work is logically
distinct from making value judgements. Having values does not
automatically corrupt honest analysis. Values affect analyses only when
someone bends/changes facts to serve an ideal or interest
●● Ideological bias.
Answer: Ideological bias is the influence that a researcher values.
Interests, and especially class or "social locations" can have on
economic inquiry, shaping how they interpret socially and economically.
Social sciences are affected as people often bring their ideas of values
into their theory
●● Ideology effects social and natural sciences.
Answer: Schumpeter believes ideological bias is much less significant in
the natural sciences than in the social sciences. Natural sciences deal,
primarily, with phenomena that are independent of the researcher's class
or social position. For a capitalist and a proletarian, a falling stone looks
the same (physics). Class can affect interpretations of economics,
making ideological bias a concern in economics, a social science
, ●● Definition of vision.
Answer: A vision is the researcher's initial way of perceiving and
organizing economic reality before formal scientific analysis begins.
What intuitively matters to an individual and the phenomena connected.
Ideological bias enters the scientific process through the "vision,"
meaning one social location/class impacts researchers energize or focus
on when developing theory even before objective testing occurs.
●● Whether science can adequately correct for ideological bias.
Answer: Ideological bias can be reduced through scientific analysis and
fact-finding but it can never be fully eliminated. Ideological bias
originates in the prescientific stage making it dangerous to the goal of
scientific objectivity. As a result, some ideology will always be with us
●● Relationship between objects and theories, including whether
normative perspectives behind different theories influence what objects
you "see" in the world; relate this to marxian and neoclassical theory.
Answer: R&W argue that theories shape the "object" we see in the
economy because theories select certain objects to focus on and then
define what those objects are and treat them as important. Normative
perspectives guide what to focus on: neoclassical theory focus on
individuals and market exchange. While Marxian theory highlights class
and exploitation, meaning each theory reveals a different economic
reality
2026 QUESTIONS AND SOLUTIONS FULL
SCORE A+
●● Does Schumpeter believe values necessarily influence scientific
practice.
Answer: No. The two are separate. Doing scientific work is logically
distinct from making value judgements. Having values does not
automatically corrupt honest analysis. Values affect analyses only when
someone bends/changes facts to serve an ideal or interest
●● Ideological bias.
Answer: Ideological bias is the influence that a researcher values.
Interests, and especially class or "social locations" can have on
economic inquiry, shaping how they interpret socially and economically.
Social sciences are affected as people often bring their ideas of values
into their theory
●● Ideology effects social and natural sciences.
Answer: Schumpeter believes ideological bias is much less significant in
the natural sciences than in the social sciences. Natural sciences deal,
primarily, with phenomena that are independent of the researcher's class
or social position. For a capitalist and a proletarian, a falling stone looks
the same (physics). Class can affect interpretations of economics,
making ideological bias a concern in economics, a social science
, ●● Definition of vision.
Answer: A vision is the researcher's initial way of perceiving and
organizing economic reality before formal scientific analysis begins.
What intuitively matters to an individual and the phenomena connected.
Ideological bias enters the scientific process through the "vision,"
meaning one social location/class impacts researchers energize or focus
on when developing theory even before objective testing occurs.
●● Whether science can adequately correct for ideological bias.
Answer: Ideological bias can be reduced through scientific analysis and
fact-finding but it can never be fully eliminated. Ideological bias
originates in the prescientific stage making it dangerous to the goal of
scientific objectivity. As a result, some ideology will always be with us
●● Relationship between objects and theories, including whether
normative perspectives behind different theories influence what objects
you "see" in the world; relate this to marxian and neoclassical theory.
Answer: R&W argue that theories shape the "object" we see in the
economy because theories select certain objects to focus on and then
define what those objects are and treat them as important. Normative
perspectives guide what to focus on: neoclassical theory focus on
individuals and market exchange. While Marxian theory highlights class
and exploitation, meaning each theory reveals a different economic
reality
