IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/cuswps/oek49.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Monism in modern science: The case of (micro-)economics

Author

Listed:
  • Beckenbach, Frank

Abstract

This elaboration starts by deciphering modern science as a social subsystem being loosely coupled to the rest of society (section 2.1). Additionally, the way in which modern (monistic) economics was generated within this subsystem will be sketched (section 2.2). This will be contrasted with the views that this monism would have been eroded in recent times due to imports from other sciences into economics. Conclusions as regards the necessity as well as the mode of pluralism will be drawn from this discussion (section 2.3). Picking up the disputable complexity reductions involved in the dominating (monistic) approach in economics other ways to deal with complexity inherent in the economy will be dealt with in section 3. Here a stepwise exit from the established standard approach in economics is suggested for the microeconomic syllabus consisting in the first step of an introductory pluralistic course and in the second step of a heterodox advanced course. Conclusions and perspectives resulting from such an approach are discussed in the final section.

Suggested Citation

  • Beckenbach, Frank, 2019. "Monism in modern science: The case of (micro-)economics," Working Paper Serie des Instituts für Ökonomie Ök-49, Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung (HfGG), Institut für Ökonomie.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:cuswps:oek49
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/206871/1/oek49.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Davis, John B., 2006. "The turn in economics: neoclassical dominance to mainstream pluralism?," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 2(1), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Marc Lavoie, 2014. "Post-Keynesian Economics: New Foundations," Post-Print hal-01343652, HAL.
    3. Ministry of Finance,, 2015. "Economic Survey 2014-15," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199460182.
    4. Herbert A. Simon, 1996. "The Sciences of the Artificial, 3rd Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262691914, April.
    5. Geoffrey M. Hodgson & Warren J. Samuels & Marc R. Tool (ed.), 1994. "The Elgar Companion to Institutional and Evolutionary Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, volume 0, number 228.
    6. Olivier Blanchard, 2009. "The State of Macro," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 209-228, May.
    7. Tamás Dusek, 2008. "Methodological Monism in Economics," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 1(2), pages 26-50, March.
    8. David Colander & Richard Holt & Barkley Rosser, 2004. "The changing face of mainstream economics," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 485-499.
    9. Herbert A. Simon, 2002. "Near decomposability and the speed of evolution," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 11(3), pages 587-599, June.
    10. Wall, Kent D., 1993. "A model of decision making under bounded rationality," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 331-352, April.
    11. Buiter, Willem, 2009. "The unfortunate uselessness of most ’state of the art’ academic monetary economics," MPRA Paper 58407, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 06 Mar 2009.
    12. Hands,D. Wade, 2001. "Reflection without Rules," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521797962, September.
    13. Giovanni Dosi, 2000. "Sources, Procedures, and Microeconomic Effects of Innovation," Chapters, in: Innovation, Organization and Economic Dynamics, chapter 2, pages 63-114, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller, 2009. ""Why is Economics not an Evolutionary Science?" New Answers to Veblen's Old Question," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 867-898.
    15. Sheila C. Dow, 2008. "Plurality in Orthodox and Heterodox Economics," The Journal of Philosophical Economics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, The Journal of Philosophical Economics, vol. 1(2), pages 73-96, March.
    16. Christian Arnsperger & Yanis Varoufakis, 2006. "What Is Neoclassical Economics? The three axioms responsible for its theoretical oeuvre, practical irrelevance and, thus, discursive power," Panoeconomicus, Savez ekonomista Vojvodine, Novi Sad, Serbia, vol. 53(1), pages 5-18, March.
    17. Leonhard Dobusch & Jakob Kapeller, 2012. "Heterodox United vs. Mainstream City? Sketching a Framework for Interested Pluralism in Economics," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(4), pages 1035-1058.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jakob Kapeller & Stephan Puehringer & Christian Grimm, 2022. "Paradigms and policies: the state of economics in the German-speaking countries," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(4), pages 1183-1210, July.
    2. William A. Jackson, 2018. "Strategic Pluralism and Monism in Heterodox Economics," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 50(2), pages 237-251, June.
    3. Urban, Janina & Rommel, Florian, 2020. "German economics: Its current form and content," Working Paper Serie des Instituts für Ökonomie 56, Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung (HfGG), Institut für Ökonomie.
    4. Eugenio Caverzasi & Alberto Russo, 2018. "Toward a new microfounded macroeconomics in the wake of the crisis," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(6), pages 999-1014.
    5. Tae-Hee Jo, 2021. "Veblen’s evolutionary methodology and its implications for heterodox economics in the calculable future," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 2(2), pages 277-295, July.
    6. Iazdi, Oz, 2023. "Vieses orto-heterodoxos e os algoritmos economistas do ChatGPT [Ortho-Heterodox biases and the economist algorithms of ChatGPT]," MPRA Paper 117655, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Claudius Gräbner & Birte Strunk, 2020. "Pluralism in economics: its critiques and their lessons," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 311-329, October.
    8. Angela Ambrosino & Magda Fontana & Anna Azzurra Gigante, 2018. "Shifting Boundaries In Economics: The Institutional Cognitive Strand And The Future Of Institutional Economics," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 767-791, July.
    9. Duarte N. Leite & Sandra T. Silva & Oscar Afonso, 2014. "Institutions, Economics And The Development Quest," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 491-515, July.
    10. Gruszka, Katarzyna & Scharbert, Annika Regine & Soder, Michael, 2017. "Leaving the mainstream behind? Uncovering subjective understandings of economics instructors' roles," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 485-498.
    11. Aigner, Ernest, 2021. "Global dynamics and country-level development in academic economics: An explorative cognitive-bibliometric study," SRE-Discussion Papers 07/2021, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    12. Peter Spiegler & William Milberg, 2011. "Methodenstreit 2011? Historical perspective on the contemporary debate over how to reform economics," Working Papers 1106, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    13. Rouven Reinke, 2021. "A critical note on the scientific conception of economics: claiming for a methodological pluralism," Post-Print hal-03374887, HAL.
    14. David Dequech, 2016. "Some Institutions (Social Norms And Conventions) Of Contemporary Mainstream Economics, Macroeconomics, And Financial Economics," Anais do XLIII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 43rd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 006, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    15. Yann Giraud, 2017. "The Contestable Marketplace of Ideas: Paul Samuelson’s Defense of Mainstream Economics through Textbook Making, 1967-1976," THEMA Working Papers 2017-19, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    16. Richard Holt & J. Barkley Rosser & David Colander, 2011. "The Complexity Era in Economics," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 357-369.
    17. Giandomenica Becchio, 2020. "The Two Blades of Occam's Razor in Economics: Logical and Heuristic," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 9(1), pages 1-17, July.
    18. Ambrosino, Angela & Cedrini, Mario & B. Davis, John, 2022. "Today’s economics: One, No One and One Hundred Thousand," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 202215, University of Turin.
    19. Taalbi, Josef, 2017. "What drives innovation? Evidence from economic history," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(8), pages 1437-1453.
    20. Florentin Gloetzl & Ernest Aigner, 2015. "Pluralism in the Market of Science? A citation network analysis of economic research at universities in Vienna," Ecological Economics Papers ieep5, Institute of Ecological Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Monism; science; microconomics; pluralism; neoclassical economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A10 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - General
    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
    • A20 - General Economics and Teaching - - Economic Education and Teaching of Economics - - - General
    • B20 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - General
    • B59 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Other
    • D00 - Microeconomics - - General - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:cuswps:oek49. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hfgg.de/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.