EUCLIDEAN GEOMETER: Given the standard axioms of Euclidean geometry, I have proved that the interior angles of a triangle always sum to 180 degrees.
AUSTRIAN ECONOMIST: Okay.
MAINSTREAM NEOCLASSICAL ECONOMIST: I regard the proposition that the interior angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees as a testable hypothesis. I have obtained a $15.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation to conduct a field study. My graduate students will visit 118 countries to measure and record the interior angles of empirically observed triangles. We will then analyze these data with the latest econometric methods to determine whether, at conventional levels of statistical significance, the data warrant rejection of the hypothesis. In view of the subject’s importance, we expect that our report will be published in the American Economic Review or the Journal of Political Economy. Even if we conclude that the data do not warrant rejection of the hypothesis, however, we will continue to regard it as provisional, pending new data and tests that might warrant its rejection.
