Dissembling nature, elusive economy

Much of the discussion of the relationships between economics and the natural sciences has focused on methodological issues, such as potential explanatory isomorphisms, the uses of natural metaphors and the problem of scientism. But the connection between the two domains runs much deeper: it is epistemic and ontological. The chapter argues that Western discussions of the economy since the fifteenth century have been imbued with notions of nature, and that the two notions have been jointly defining one another for centuries. Claims that economics underwent a process of de-naturalization in the second half of the nineteenth century following breakdown of the theological conception of nature are incorrect. To fit the new physical conception of nature, economics was re-natured. We have been living through yet another bout of re-naturing the economy with the rise of ecology in the recent past.