The usefulness of thruth : an enquiriy concerning economic modelling Philosophy of Science Philosophy of Economics Methodology Empiricism Pragmatism Postmodernism Anything goes Relativism Normativity. This thesis attempts to justify a normative role for methodology by sketching a pragmatic way out of the dichotomy between two major strands in economic methodology: empiricism and postmodernism. I discuss several methodological approaches and assess their aptness for theory appraisal in economics. I begin with the most common views on methodology (i.e. empiricism and postmodernism) and argue why they are each ill suited for giving methodological prescriptions to economics. Then I consider positions that avoid the errors of empiricism and postmodernism. I specifically examine why the two major strands of methodological criticism fail to give helpful methodological advice to economists and sketch out a pragmatic approach that can do this.