Samowiedza heurystyczna wśród ekonomistów
Heuristic Self-Knowledge Among the Economists

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is an inquiry on what kind of heuristic self-knowledge is possessed by modern economists. This topic is not very well known, therefore the author decided to tackle it. The study is focused on three fields: heuristics, knowledge and selfknowledge, and practical benefits arising from two former fields. The results of the inquiry indicate that the heuristic self-knowledge among economists, if taken literally, is fairly modest. On the other hand, a heuristic sensibility, or openness to new events and developments, does not raise any objections. It can be thus said that the economists are using multiple elements of what we call heuristics without acknowledging or using that name itself. Their heuristic knowledge most often works as an unexpressed knowledge, rooted in minds of individual persons. It is intrinsically a dispersed, individualized kind of knowledge. Friedrich von Hayek called it tacit knowledge. Even under those circumstances the economists experience significant scientific success. However, there are reasons to believe that externalization of heuristic tacit knowledge, and combining it with existing resources of economic knowledge expressed in words, images and numbers, might contribute to the creation of a separate field of economical heuristics – and expand the cognitive capacity of economic knowledge as a whole.

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