Revisiting the role and consequences of Econophysics from a Marxian perspective

The idea that economic phenomena are governed by stochasticity and uncertainty led to the extensive use of concepts and methods from the physical sciences that deal with non-deterministic patterns, giving rise to the multidisciplinary field of Econophysics. The last decade, several voices rose against it arguing that no new knowledge has been obtained and that the Econophysicists have merely ‘discovered’ what was already known in Economics. There also have been economists arguing that the mixture of physical models and economic ideas can still blossom and provide new insights into the study of Economics. In this paper, we attempt to reveal a different aspect of Econophysics, one that builds on its corroborative character and its role in criticizing neoclassical approach. In our view Econophysics can be used as a new enlarged version of Econometrics, as a set of methodologies to subject the economic models to logical and empirical tests. But, to do so, we argue, it is also necessary to ‘release’ this strict methodological research from any theoretical or ideological doctrine, including those neoclassical axioms so well incorporated in Economics. In view of this, we show that econophysical models by and large give further insights to discard the Marginalist paradigm point towards a different perception, closer to the old Classical and Marxian theories of political economy.