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philosopher4hire
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Re: Is economics a science?

December 1st, 2020, 10:51 am

It seems, one text it not enough to convince anyone that economics is not a science. I should have expected it. So, now I give you two additional texts. One explains what a science is, by showing how improper are the encyclopedic definitions being used nowadays:
http://philosopher4hire.eu/index.php?nr=6
the other:
http://philosopher4hire.eu/index.php?nr=7
shows, that even with definitions biased towards making economics a science, it is really ridiculous to insist that economics is a science. An example here is a paper by the economics professor at the Victoria University, Australia. A really good example of intellectual deception. I think, it is really embarrassing to agree with such encyclopedic ‘definitions’ and ‘scientific’ papers. When it is so easy to show, that they are simply ridiculous.
I hope, you will find my texts entertaining and surprising, at least. A kind of intellectual exercise so much different than the usual stuff you deal with.
 
 I’ll use this occasion to answer ‘questions’, I’d left unanswered in this thread last time. I admit, I’m curious, if Wittgenstein keeps saying, that: ”it's a description rather than an explanation.”
 
 ‘A science’ containing contradictions is not a science, but an intellectual mess.

Has mathematics resolved the incompleteness theorems (e.g. Godel)? That is a question rather than a statement.
First of all, incompleteness is not contradiction. You should understand that. One has very little in common with the other.
Secondly, Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems just show mathematically (logically), what had been known for ages. That we are unable to learn and understand reality using pure thinking alone. It is the Descartes’ “I doubt, therefore I exist” proved formally.
Thirdly, your argument falls into the deceptive way of reasoning I deal with in my text “Academic view on economics”:
proving something good by asserting everything is bad
Basically, you say: “Hey, mathematics has its problems, too!”. This way one can ‘prove’ that the US economy is not much better than the one in Yemen. Just find a problem in the US economy. Nothing easier… Who cares, that “the problems” are totally incomparable.
 
 
It is hard to argue with plain
 It's not even wrong.

No, it's actually wrong
I can only say, that if it is not wrong, than it is probably right…
 
And:
Madness to ignorance is like deterministic chaos to randomness.
is meaningless and could be put anywhere. However, it sounds wise.
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Is economics a science?

December 2nd, 2020, 7:36 pm

I hope, you will find my texts entertaining and surprising, 

It's when you mentioned Euler's number I switched to channel 502. It's important to keep audience on tenterhooks?

BTW what's your favourite Tractatus' proposition?
 
philosopher4hire
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Re: Is economics a science?

December 3rd, 2020, 10:13 am

It's when you mentioned Euler's number I switched to channel 502. It's important to keep audience on tenterhooks?
Do you suggest, that mentioning Euler’s number makes people switch to channel 502? A bold thesis.
The following question you can answer yourself…
BTW what's your favourite Tractatus' proposition?
I’ve never read any.
 
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Re: Is economics a science?

December 7th, 2020, 11:44 pm

"Is economics a science?"

at least not a Nobel science, as no Nobel there, only memory nobel.
 
philosopher4hire
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Re: Is economics a science?

December 8th, 2020, 9:47 am

"Is economics a science?"

at least not a Nobel science, as no Nobel there, only memory nobel.
This detail means very little. The fact, that we call economics a science, has its profound consequences:
It gives, the otherwise more or less common, beliefs or knowledge, the legitimacy of a science. Politicians, economists, ideologists, and many others do need economics "sitting at the table" as a science. [..] Social scientists break through successive bottoms falling into absurdity. Unfortunately, our Western world agenda is firmly linked to their 'advancements'. And it is hard to break this linkage for as long as we believe, that what they do is science. Deserving the same trust as physics or engineering.
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Is economics a science?

October 28th, 2023, 8:55 am

How many economists know what an ordinary differential equation (ODE) is?
 
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katastrofa
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Re: Is economics a science?

October 29th, 2023, 4:02 pm

They have all those growth models which are basically the review of basic ODEs, don’t they. I actually see lots of ODEs in economics, at least the way I imagine this field works.
 
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bearish
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Re: Is economics a science?

October 29th, 2023, 7:12 pm

I agree. Much less so in finance, or at least the corners of which I inhabit, where PDEs are more prevalent.
 
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katastrofa
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Re: Is economics a science?

October 30th, 2023, 8:59 am

Makes me feel so smart when you agree with me  8-) But now back to work and reality!
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Is economics a science?

October 30th, 2023, 4:22 pm

I agree. Much less so in finance, or at least the corners of which I inhabit, where PDEs are more prevalent.
What about Affine Models, Riccati and the works of Phelim Boyle and (uncle) Darrel Duffie?

And,  and 
Alan use Mathematica's Method of Lines (MOL) to solve PDE(S1, S2, t) -> ODE (t), 

In general, imho economists live in discrete space? And they find PDE difficult.
 
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bearish
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Re: Is economics a science?

October 31st, 2023, 12:47 am

I agree. Much less so in finance, or at least the corners of which I inhabit, where PDEs are more prevalent.
What about Affine Models, Riccati and the works of Phelim Boyle and (uncle) Darrel Duffie?

And,  and 
Alan use Mathematica's Method of Lines (MOL) to solve PDE(S1, S2, t) -> ODE (t), 

In general, imho economists live in discrete space? And they find PDE difficult.
Well, the Riccati equations and MOL seem to me to be computational tricks to reduce PDEs to ODEs, which is all well and good, but doesn’t mean that the PDEs weren’t central to the problem in the first place. As for my good friend and former colleague, Phelim, his breakthrough finance (as opposed to actuarial) work was to use Monte Carlo to validate the finite difference PDE solutions in the dissertation of his PhD student Eduardo Schwartz. And Darrel’s books and papers have more PDEs in them than you can shake a stick at. Finance has some room for actual discrete spaces (as opposed to discrete approximations to continuous spaces), not the least arising from the fact that a lot of securities and contracts chunk time into days. Like, you receive the same amount of interest on a deposit placed in the morning or the afternoon. And you will get paid the same amount on a CDS contract in case of a credit event regardless of the time of day it occurs. Stock prices used to live on a pretty course lattice governed by minimum tick sizes, whether set by exchange rules or market maker collusion, but not so much anymore.
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Is economics a science?

October 31st, 2023, 8:19 am

That's clear, fair enough.
I suppose my question is "what does an economist need to know in order to understand PDE".
Is ODE savvy needed for PDE?

// Markov theory and ODE have some overlap.
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Is economics a science?

October 31st, 2023, 8:52 am

"Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three."

Crank Nicolson
Monte Carlo

Accurate ODE solver (Mathematica NDSolve, Boost C++ odeint, Python odeint).
 
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Cuchulainn
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Re: Is economics a science?

October 31st, 2023, 9:40 am

The Riccati Equation in Mathematical Finance
P.P Boyle W Tian Fred Guan

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... 7101905085
 
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katastrofa
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Re: Is economics a science?

October 31st, 2023, 10:07 am

Maybe spatial economics could provide some intuition, since you like to model the heat equation. If I deploy 1000 free bicycles in central Oslo, how far they will spread over time. You get a heat equation with some For example how some geographical and local population characteristics encoded in D.