Before I begin - I want to clarify that I do not believe the fundamental intent of the field of Economics is invalid. There is definitely a utility to exploring how goods and services are distributed across a society and many fields have benefited from certain basic concepts developed in Economics.But on the whole, I generally think Economists are full of it. Now I am by no means an expert in the field and this perception may just be the result of my own ignorance, I got my degree in Physics. But it seems to me that the field is defined by political agendas (whether they be extolling the inherent benevolence of Free-Market Capitalism or pushing for greater involvement in the economy) rather than the objective and open-ended pursuit of knowledge as found in the sciences and to a lesser extent the social sciences. Economists seem hopelessly rooted in the worship of figures like Smith, Ricardo, Keynes, and Marx, stubbornly committed to reworking their theories into something that sort of fits the economic realities they cant ignore and jives with the political principles they like. While most Social Sciences seem to have an issue political agendas, Economics looks completely and fundamentally broken in its lack of rigor. Even in fields like History or Anthropology where there is considerable politicizing, there is a broad consensus on the fundamentals of methodology and the legitimacy of certain ideas that keeps everyone on the right track. Meanwhile, you have Economists like Paul Krugman and Steve Keen not just forwarding their respective political platforms, but disagreeing about the fundamental operation of economies. I havent seen anything like this in any of the other social sciences. I havent seen Sociologists debate whether or not social stratification even exists, Linguists reject the idea that cultural pressures can change languages, or Archaeologists fight over whether or not settlement patterns can tell us about cultural evolution. When I read about each of these fields, I see a clear progression in their work: a refinement of methods, a building of knowledge, the revision of basic assumptions to fit new data.Then I read pieces by influential Economists that basically confess the cluelessness of people working in the field on the one hand and on the other hand assert that their theories dont require empirical validation and I cant help but think Wow, the emperor has no clothes. While Economists (hilariously) try to create an air of credibility to their work by expressing their theories with mathematical formulas, the doesnt change the fact that the basic ideas that underpin the field are based not on empirical data but rather the assumptions theyve made about the world and humanity. ( A Mathematician put out a critique about Economists use of mathematics a few years back that I really enjoyed. ) It continues to be rooted in empirically invalidated and scientifically outdated ideas like humans being fundamentally individualistic and rational simply because that is the way Western society currently likes to understand itself. The fact that this has gone largely unchallenged in the field and that many of the fields seminal concepts were derived from the haphazard reworking of Newtonian equations says that both in terms of its internal discourse and topical theorization, Economics is very shallow and just about keeping the illusion of knowing what you are talking about. Psychologists have embraced Neuroscience, Historians have begun to employ Computer Science, Biology has come to play a fundamental role in Anthropology, and Geography is constantly reworking itself to incorporate the work done in the hard sciences.... but Economists seem intent on ignoring the work of other fields and pretending they have all the answers.Economics has limited predictive power and every time Economists claim to be able to explain something, some new economic catastrophe occurs and theyre all left scratching their heads, trying to figure out why their explanations dont conform to reality. But the worst part? The worst part is the fact that of all the social sciences, Economics has the most sway in our society. It isnt supported and respected as a field because it tells or explains economies very well but rather because it feeds into whatever businesspeople and politicians alike want to hear.Hello, users of CMV! This is a footnote from your moderators. Wed just like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please remember to read through our rules. If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which, downvotes dont change views! If you are thinking about submitting a CMV yourself, please have a look through our popular topics wiki first. Any questions or concerns? Feel free to message us. Happy CMVing!
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 12:23:38 +0000
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