The Modal Laws of Economics

1998 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-205
Author(s):  
Adolfo García de la Sienra
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Static Case ◽  
Human Needs ◽  
Classical Characterization ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory ◽  
Fundamental Law ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Alternative Choice

Herman Dooyeweerd’s classical characterization of the meaning-kernel of the economic modality runs as follows: the sparing or frugal mode of administering scarce goods, implying an alternative choice of their destination with regard to the satisfaction of different human needs. My first aim in this paper is to show that Dooyeweerd’s characterization of the meaning-kernel of the economic modality naturally leads to neoclassical economic theory. In order to do this, I will provide an argument that, departing from Dooyeweerd’s definition of the meaning-kernel of the economic modality, concludes in a logical reconstruction of (the static case of) neoclassical economic theory (from now on denoted as NET). The fundamental law of this theory will turn out to be thus, naturally, a formulation of the fundamental modal law of economics. The second aim of the paper is epistemological since it discusses the methodological problem of the empirical claim of the theory. It is my hope that this discussion will clarify the limits of NET and provide a reply to the objections raised against it by Reformed scholars like Goudzwaard (1980).

scholarly journals Economic Mind: From Attribution Error to Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-264
Author(s):  
Bartosz Kuźniarz
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Economic Model ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Technical Developments ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory ◽  
Attribution Error ◽  
Naturalistic Interpretation ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract I argue in this text that the economic mind is a culturally hegemonic, naturalistic interpretation of the behavior produced by the revolutionary nature of the economic and technical developments of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Despite persistent criticism, people fulfilled the predictions of the economic model of a human being for so long that they committed an attribution error and took it to be the adequate vision of human nature. Neoclassical economic theory played a significant, even if involuntary, role in the spread of this illusion. I also claim that the concept of economic mind—as the dominant interpretation of human nature—currently functions as a self-fulfilling prophecy, reproducing behaviors that would have a chance to change (refuting the theory developed on their basis), were it not for the popularity of this concept as commonsensical definition of human nature.

IRVING FISHER AND THE MECHANISTIC CHARACTER OF TWENTIETH CENTURY ACCOUNTING THOUGHT

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Mouck
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
World View ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Newtonian Mechanics ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory

This paper provides an overview of the influence of Newtonian mechanics on the development of neoclassical economic theory and highlights Fisher's role in the popularization of the resulting mechanical conception of economics. The paper also portrays Fisher's The Nature of Capital and Income — a work which has been aptly characterized as the “first economic theory of accounting” — as the first move toward the colonization of accounting by economics. The result of Fisher's influence has been a paradigmatic linkage between the Newtonian world view of science, neoclassical economics, and mainstream academic accounting thought. The picture that emerges from this linkage is then used as a backdrop against which the emerging challenges to economics-based accounting thought are highlighted.

The Emerging Standard Neurobiological Model of Decision Making

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shih-Wei Wu ◽  
Paul W. Glimcher
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Economic Theory ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Internal Representations ◽  
Neurobiological Model ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory ◽  
The Brain

The standard neurobiological model of decision making has evolved, since the turn of the twenty-first century, from a confluence of economic, psychological, and neurosci- entific studies of how humans make choices. Two fundamental insights have guided the development of this model during this period, one drawn from economics and the other from neuroscience. The first derives from neoclassical economic theory, which unambiguously demonstrated that logically consistent choosers behave “as if” they had some internal, continuous, and monotonic representation of the values of any choice objects under consideration. The second insight derives from neurobiological studies suggesting that the brain can both represent, in patterns of local neural activity, and compare, by a process of interneuronal competition, internal representations of value associated with different choices.

A Set of Axioms for Neoclassical Economics and the Methodological Status of the Equilibrium Concept

1992 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnis Vilks
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
General Equilibrium ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Equilibrium Concept ◽  
Equilibrium Existence ◽  
Existence Proofs ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory ◽  
Methodological Status

It is widely agreed that the concept of general equilibrium and, in particular, general equilibrium existence proofs play a central role within the neoclassical approach to economic theory. There is much less agreement, however, on the concepts of general equilibrium and of neoclassical economic theory themselves.

Shall I Compare Thee to a Minkowski-Ricardo-Leontief-Metzler Matrix of the Mosak-Hicks Type?: Or, Rhetoric, Mathematics, and the Nature of Neoclassical Economic Theory

1987 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Mirowski
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Differential Calculus ◽  
Neoclassical Economic ◽  
Real Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
And Topology ◽  
Neoclassical Economic Theory ◽  
Six Elements ◽  
Metzler Matrix

Is rhetoric just a new and trendy way to épater les bourgeois? Unfortunately, I think that the newfound interest of some economists in rhetoric, and particularly Donald McCloskey in his new book and subsequent responses to critics (McCloskey, 1985a, 1985b), gives that impression. After economists have worked so hard for the past five decades to learn their sums, differential calculus, real analysis, and topology, it is a fair bet that one could easily hector them about their woeful ignorance of the conjugation of Latin verbs or Aristotle's Six Elements of Tragedy. Moreover, it has certainly become an academic cliché that economists write as gracefully and felicitously as a hundred monkeys chained to broken typewriters. The fact that economists still trot out Keynes's prose in their defense is itself an index of the inarticulate desperation of an inarticulate profession.

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