Ekonomia instytucjonalna – sensowna czy celowa procedura poznania?

Purpose | The paper relies on intellectual heritage of history of science and philosophy of science in order to recall a pattern of scientific analysis other than the one which has been formative to the main stream of economics. It attempts to find out which one of these two patterns of scientific cognition is applied in institutional-economic analysis. Research method | A fundamental differentiation between two patterns of cognition, namely the meaning-oriented one and target-oriented one, provides the scaffold of this analysis. Results | Institutional-economic analysis has been developed in accordance with the meaning-oriented pattern, from its origins up till contemporary theories. Which means that it does not use, basically, the teleological, target-oriented pattern of cognition and, therefore, the scientific nature of institutional analysis in economics may be questioned. However, the philosophy of science seems to back the claim that such an assumption must be rejected, the pattern alternative to that of the mainstream economics should be recognised as evenly scientific way to cognition and, consequently, it should be realised that economic analysis follows two cognitive tracks instead of a single one track. Originality / value / implications / recommendations | Dramatic experience of two international crisis of 21st century urgently calls for re-consideration of the cognitive track which is specific for the main stream of economics. This attempt is special in the sense it benefits from heritage of philosophy of science instead of relying on economic thought alone.