When I studied economics in the 1980s here in the UK I was dismayed to discover how much positivism implicitly dominated the economics curriculum. At A-level it

When I studied economics in the 1980s here in the UK I was dismayed to discover how much positivism implicitly dominated the economics curriculum. At A-level it was even more blatant with Lipsey's "Positive Economics" serving as a textbook for the whole course. Only the study of sociology enabled me to put this perspective in perspective. Lipsey's work presented the theories of supply and demand and Adam Smith's "invisible hand" as some kind of law of nature, the kind of gold sought by Comte and Durkheim. It was only the study of Marx's dialectical materialism which really opened my eyes about how positivism as taught in the economics curriculum was used to justify the capitalist system.