I do think there is a tendency in certain circles to get a bit confused about whether the pursuit of incentives is a methodological assumption or an empirical result.
Consider
this video, an introduction to an online course on economics by Alex Tabarrok and Tyler Cowen, and in particular the way they use the example of the Australian transport ships. Is it really economics, rather than some combination of history, sociology and psychology, that explains why the penal ships were put in the hands of the sort of person to whom money, but not moral suasion, would provide adequate incentive to keep people alive?
