Economics and Physical Science

Stephen DeCanio ()

Chapter 4 in Limits of Economic and Social Knowledge, 2014, pp 103-121 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Modern physical science has moved a considerable distance from the deterministic materialism of the nineteenth century. Even then, the inclusion of fields (gravitational, magnetic, and electric) complemented the massy, solid atoms in making up the world-picture of physics. But in the twentieth century, science replaced the earlier ontology entirely. Quantum mechanics, the crowning achievement of modern physics, has re-opened ages-old questions about the nature of reality, causation, and the connection between consciousness and the external world. The fundamental ground of modern physics is at the epistemological level — what we can know about physical systems is basic, rather than an onto-logical account of the world as it ‘really is.’

Keywords: Quantum Theory; Bifurcation Diagram; Social Knowledge; Causal Closure; Universal Turing Machine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-37193-5_4

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137371935_4

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