Review of the Oxford handbook of philosophy of economics , edited by Harold Kincaid and Don Ross . New York : Oxford University

1 The Oxford handbook of philosophy of economics aims at bringing out what is new in the philosophy of economics—an aim that, I believe, has been successfully achieved. The introductory chapter by Don Ross and Harold Kincaid does a superb job of describing the current orientation of philosophy of economics, the result of developments in philosophy of science, in economics, and in the relationship of philosophy of economics to both fields. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s philosophy of economics was in fact mostly concerned with applying abstract philosophical rules to the case of economics, whereas nowadays it is more preoccupied with understanding and evaluating economics as it is actually practiced and with developing, in-house as it were, the philosophical tools required for these tasks. This, according to the editors, is not only how philosophy of economics is now done, but also how it should be done. In order to deliver a philosophy of science that concretely engages with scientific practice, " the key for philosophers is to keep their ears as close as possible to the ground—in this case, the ground being the economics seminar rooms around the world in which the graduate students gather " (pp. 28-29). I find this valuable advice, especially for young philosophers and methodologists of economics—one of the main audiences of this Journal. The range of topics discussed in the Handbook pretty much covers the whole spectrum of interests of contemporary philosophy of economics. As such it provides a valuable resource for philosophers and methodologists of economics, not only to gain an up-to-date map of the field but also, I believe, to discover new directions of inquiry. Thanks to the practice-oriented character of many of its contributions, the Handbook will also interest economists, or so one hopes. In what follows I will not discuss each contribution in detail or offer a general discussion of the book. Since virtually every author is a