This module aims to illustrate the conceptual, methodological, foundational and ethical issues in economic theory and practice. We will start by investigating some classical definition of economics. Then, we’ll turn to a discussion of economic methodology, considering Milton Friedman’s positivism/instrumentalism and approaches influenced by the idea of falsification introduced by Karl Popper; we end this section with discussion of the question of whether economics is properly considered a science. Afterward, we will critically examine the idea of rationality. What is the meaning of the instrumental conception of rationality? Is the theory of rational choice a good idealization of what human reasoning is like? We will finish with an in-depth discussion of the relationship between ethics and economics and the role that values play — and ought or ought not to play — in economic reasoning.