Factual and Conventional Terms in the Philosophical Foundations of Economics

Muslim philosophers’ distinction between factual and conventional statements is the point of departure for this article. Based on this separation, economics is considered practical knowledge, which its main mission is handling the welfare problems and providing policies to solve them through understanding factual relationship (finding is an introduction to handling). Similar to other practical or social kinds of knowledge, the most important criteria to confirm or reject economic policies are considered according to their relation with justice. According to realist methodology, the recognition of rights has its roots in the real world and objectivity: natural capacity and ends and human labor. According to the article, economic knowledge includes two pillars: conventional statements (goals and economic rights) and factual statements (assumptions and positive relations). Methodology of the mainstream economics is far from the criterion of justice (on conventional side) and criterion of realism (on factual side). However Islamic teachings could affect real assumptions and also economic rights and goals. Thus according to these two channels we can speak about different economic knowledge based on the real conception and just handling