By Christian Arnsperger“Engineering an intersection between economics and the Integral approach—i.e., gradually fleshing out and promoting a truly Integral economics—may well be one of the most urgent tasks in social science today. At least, I myself (as a standardly trained economist who turned heretical at some point) believe it is, and that is why I have written this paper which, for all its defects, might stand as a “manifesto” of sorts for those of us who think it’s about time economics was pulled out of its current, arch-positivistic quagmire.”
Read the Entire Essay: Here
This article leaves a lot to be desired. It's obvious that economics is a right-hand discipline, but the author still repeats this over and over, along with other tautologies such as "Integral economics includes all four quadrants".
ReplyDeleteHe poses the question "What would left-hand economics be?" but never actually answers it. Instead, he offers left-hand observations about the discipline of economics, which is great, but if this is meant to provide an integral economics manifesto, it never gets around to telling us what it would look like.
Dear alsmike,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. You are right that the paper is sketchy. That's why it was called a "manifesto." To those who are already deeply into Integral, it is sure to seem rather insufficient. However, you have to see where economics today is coming from: what you call tautologies appear to most practicing economists out there as heresies.
I am currently working on a longer (in fact, book-length) exposition of the critique of mainstream economics from an Integral viewpoint and of the content of a possible Integral paradigm. Maybe you'll find it more satisfactory.
Best,
Christian
The Case for Mindful Economics:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.e.u-tokyo.ac.jp/cemano/research/DRSS/documents/microCOE0806.pdf
[tip of the hat to Ned for sharing this article/link]
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteCan I suggest having a thorough look at the Austrians? Mises and Hayek have always stood out as the "modern" economists most interested in epistemological issues, and the importance of being very careful with the use of rationalism, materialism and positivism in economics (and all social sciences in fact), as well as honouring the subjective nature of economic value and evaluation.
In case that you already have in fact, what did you think?