Economics -- What is the subject about??? (Pt 2)
I have already discussed in my previous post the scope of Economics. Let me moved on to the nature of Economics. Ultimately, many people who are unfamiliar with the discipline has no idea what Economics is, and some will even make the false accusation that it is an Arts subject that is full of writing crap. It is totally wrong and irresponsible for anyone, with only a vague idea of the subject to make any strong statements about it. So let me briefly give an idea of what kind of subject Economics really is.
Firstly, the notions of whether Economics is a social science, a pseudo-science or Arts subject. There must be a distinction between an Arts subject and a social science – Arts tend to focus on expression and creativity (example literature and philosophy) while social science are concerned with social impact and issues (political science and sociology fits the description aptly). In my opinion, therefore Economics is more of a social science than an Arts subject for the subject is concerned with a lot of social issues and implications on society. There is of course some extent of creativity but it is just a minor part. Please do not be misled by the idea that because you write a lot of essays in the A levels it means that Economics is just about writing and crapping.
So now that I have established that Economics is more of a social science than an Arts subject, there is now the touchy issue of Economics being more like a pseudo-science. This is pretty tough to decide and I remembered doing it for my Economics ‘S’ paper prelim examinations, and I had a real fun time ‘name-dropping’. Anyway, whether or not it is a science is up to you to decide for yourself. Its true that Economics does not have those laboratory experiments for you to obtain results and test out theories but in Economics, there are hypothesises being made, and the real world is the laboratory to Economists. However, it is so much tougher to control variables in the real world that people claim that a lot of economic theory is not backed up with facts and hence not established. This is very disputable for there are Economists out there who have done a great job of testing out economic ideas in the real world and they did obtain very promising results (for example last year’s Nobel laureate Clive Granger). And if you seriously want to discuss the idea of Economics being a science, you will then be talking about experiments and Popper’s notion of falsification as well as Friedman’s viewpoint on methodology. It’s a pretty long argument and I refuse to dwell into technicalities. Instead, I shall present an idea of what kind of work/techniques is actually employed in Economics and let you decide on what kind of subject it is.
Let me be frank, Economics is a very different subject compared to those found in secondary school. It is a new subject that focuses on the world, and much of the subject matter has already been discussed in my previous post. The man who is recognised as the father of Economics is a philosopher, so is Economics philosophy? Yes and no, for all subjects can be considered to be philosophies (all phDs are actually doctorate in philosophy). For the case of Economics, you get to see a lot of facts on real world happenings and you create theories from them. So in a sense you create inferences from facts. It’s like looking at things and offering a reason as to why they happen. In this case, Economics is indeed like a social science.
However, Economics is loaded with Mathematics. Tons of it. Equations and matrices can be found in almost every branch of Economics, for example, the whole work behind rational expectations is a lot of differential equations and etc. So you can liken Economics to be a subject in which mathematics is used, that is applied Mathematics. So for people who think that Economics is much more about writing, think again for a lot of Economics is actually on doing Mathematics and understanding equations and relationships.
Furthermore, in this new age, computers are able to create mathematical models and hence allow economic theories and concepts to be tested out. Using computer programs, variables can be inputed and the computer will then run a simulation to obtain results. As such, it is like a science for experiments indeed can be carried out to a certain extent.
In fact, I will describe Economics as a subject which uses systematic means to analyse and understand human behaviour. Thus, it encompasses both elements that a social science and a science will have. The essential element to mastering the subject is logic (and reasoning skills). A good foundation in Mathematics will work wonders as well and enables a person to go far (especially at the tertiary level) in the subject.
I hope that with my above description, you will actually have a better understanding of what kind of subject Economics actually is.
Firstly, the notions of whether Economics is a social science, a pseudo-science or Arts subject. There must be a distinction between an Arts subject and a social science – Arts tend to focus on expression and creativity (example literature and philosophy) while social science are concerned with social impact and issues (political science and sociology fits the description aptly). In my opinion, therefore Economics is more of a social science than an Arts subject for the subject is concerned with a lot of social issues and implications on society. There is of course some extent of creativity but it is just a minor part. Please do not be misled by the idea that because you write a lot of essays in the A levels it means that Economics is just about writing and crapping.
So now that I have established that Economics is more of a social science than an Arts subject, there is now the touchy issue of Economics being more like a pseudo-science. This is pretty tough to decide and I remembered doing it for my Economics ‘S’ paper prelim examinations, and I had a real fun time ‘name-dropping’. Anyway, whether or not it is a science is up to you to decide for yourself. Its true that Economics does not have those laboratory experiments for you to obtain results and test out theories but in Economics, there are hypothesises being made, and the real world is the laboratory to Economists. However, it is so much tougher to control variables in the real world that people claim that a lot of economic theory is not backed up with facts and hence not established. This is very disputable for there are Economists out there who have done a great job of testing out economic ideas in the real world and they did obtain very promising results (for example last year’s Nobel laureate Clive Granger). And if you seriously want to discuss the idea of Economics being a science, you will then be talking about experiments and Popper’s notion of falsification as well as Friedman’s viewpoint on methodology. It’s a pretty long argument and I refuse to dwell into technicalities. Instead, I shall present an idea of what kind of work/techniques is actually employed in Economics and let you decide on what kind of subject it is.
Let me be frank, Economics is a very different subject compared to those found in secondary school. It is a new subject that focuses on the world, and much of the subject matter has already been discussed in my previous post. The man who is recognised as the father of Economics is a philosopher, so is Economics philosophy? Yes and no, for all subjects can be considered to be philosophies (all phDs are actually doctorate in philosophy). For the case of Economics, you get to see a lot of facts on real world happenings and you create theories from them. So in a sense you create inferences from facts. It’s like looking at things and offering a reason as to why they happen. In this case, Economics is indeed like a social science.
However, Economics is loaded with Mathematics. Tons of it. Equations and matrices can be found in almost every branch of Economics, for example, the whole work behind rational expectations is a lot of differential equations and etc. So you can liken Economics to be a subject in which mathematics is used, that is applied Mathematics. So for people who think that Economics is much more about writing, think again for a lot of Economics is actually on doing Mathematics and understanding equations and relationships.
Furthermore, in this new age, computers are able to create mathematical models and hence allow economic theories and concepts to be tested out. Using computer programs, variables can be inputed and the computer will then run a simulation to obtain results. As such, it is like a science for experiments indeed can be carried out to a certain extent.
In fact, I will describe Economics as a subject which uses systematic means to analyse and understand human behaviour. Thus, it encompasses both elements that a social science and a science will have. The essential element to mastering the subject is logic (and reasoning skills). A good foundation in Mathematics will work wonders as well and enables a person to go far (especially at the tertiary level) in the subject.
I hope that with my above description, you will actually have a better understanding of what kind of subject Economics actually is.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home