Relevance. In connection with the decline of neoconservative ideology, methodological disputes have escalated regarding both the methods used by economists and the scientific paradigm underlying economic science itself. If in the XIX century economic analysis corresponded to a critical scientific approach, then in the second half of the XX century economists had to revise the requirements for the quality of research from the standpoint of falsificationism. The article deals with the problems of applying the concepts of K. Popper, I. Lakatosh, etc. Kuhn's approach to the theoretical postulates of the modern economic mainstream, Marxism and institutionalism.

The purpose is to consider the problem of critical application of the concepts of K. Popper, I. Lakatosh and T. Kuhn to modern scientific knowledge and the tasks of current economic research.

Objectives. The following tasks are considered: concretization of the principle of verificationism in relation to economic analysis; concretization of the principle of falsificationism in relation to economic research; determination of the directions of progressive research economic programs.

Methodology. The article is prepared within the framework of the positivist paradigm and an adductive approach combining deductive-inductive logic

Results. Economics is a science from the point of view of the paradigm of Imre Lakatos and Thomas Kuhn, but it is not a sphere of pure scientific knowledge from the standpoint of Karl Popper's falsificationism.

Conclusions. The principle of verificationism dominates modern scientific economic research. Most economic paradigms are degrading. In economic research, it is necessary not only to strive to statistically confirm the hypothesis put forward, but also to compare it with competing scientific explanations.