[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/6892.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Die Himmel über uns: Über die Bedeutung des Gleichgewichts für die Wirtschaftswissenschaft

Author

Listed:
  • Freeman, Alan
Abstract
This article was published in Freeman, Alan (2006): Die Himmel über uns. Über die Bedeutung des Gleichgewichts für die Wirtschaftswissenschaft, EXIT! Krise und Kritik der Warengesellschaft 3, 212-241 It is the German translation of an chapter originally published in Mosini, V (ed) (2007) Equilibrium in Economics: Scope and Limits. London: Routledge ISBN 0415391377 It was entitled ‘Heavens above: what equilibrium means for economics’, and appeared on pp240-260. The book was devoted to a dialogue between the natural and the social sciences on the concept of equilibrium, arising from a series of seminars organised by the Centre for the Political and Natural Sciences by Valeria Mosini, in 2006. In this article I suggest how a natural scientist can understand the use which economics makes of the word ‘equilibrium’. I argue that a simple concept, unexceptionable for the study of many physical phenomena, has been transformed into something completely different. If, therefore, we naively expect to find it applied in economics in the same way as ‘energy’ in physics or ‘molecule’ in chemistry, as a means of describing and explaining what an impartial observer may independently verify, we will misunderstand its real significance. My basic thesis is that the educated public makes a mistake in accepting, at face value, the claim that economics conducts itself as a science. I will argue that, as at present practiced, it conducts itself as a religion. I argue that the concept of equilibrium is the organising principle of this religion.

Suggested Citation

  • Freeman, Alan, 2006. "Die Himmel über uns: Über die Bedeutung des Gleichgewichts für die Wirtschaftswissenschaft," MPRA Paper 6892, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:6892
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/6892/1/MPRA_paper_6892.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Freeman, Alan & Kliman, Andrew, 2000. "Two Concepts of Value, Two Rates of Profit, Two Laws of Motion," MPRA Paper 6715, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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. Freeman, Alan, 2013. "The Road to Market Serfdom: Why Economics is Not a Science and How to Fix it," MPRA Paper 52677, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 01 May 2013.
    2. Freeman, Alan, 2015. "Heavens above: what equilibrium means for economics. With an appendix on temporality, equilibrium, endogeneity and exogeneity, in the inductive sciences and in economics," MPRA Paper 65045, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 14 Jun 2015.
    3. Freeman, Alan, 1998. "Reply to some objections," MPRA Paper 6811, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Dong‐Min Rieu, 2009. "Has The Okishio Theorem Been Refuted?," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 162-178, February.
    5. Roberto Veneziani, 2004. "The Temporal Single‐system Interpretation of Marx's Economics: A Critical Evaluation," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 96-114, February.
    6. Kliman, Andrew & Freeman, Alan, 2006. "Replicating Marx: a Reply to Mohun," MPRA Paper 6890, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Value; Price; Money; Labour; Marx; MELT; Okishio; TSSI; temporalism; rate of profit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B5 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches
    • B51 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Socialist; Marxian; Sraffian
    • B14 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Socialist; Marxist
    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology
    • B31 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought: Individuals - - - Individuals
    • B12 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Classical (includes Adam Smith)

    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:pra:mprapa:6892. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.