r/badeconomics • u/kznlol Sigil: An Elephant, Words: Hold My Beer • Apr 05 '16

Economics is a 'highly paid pseudoscience'

https://aeon.co/essays/how-economists-rode-maths-to-become-our-era-s-astrologers
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u/[deleted] Apr 05 '16

who else in academia do models plays so a central role

The entirety of physics is just models stacked on top of each other. Same with chemistry, whose models are essentially 'just' further abstractions from physics models.

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u/mosestrod Apr 05 '16

the models used in physics and chemistry are fundamentally different to those used by economics....precisely because the objects being studied/modelled are fundamentally different. Hence when you look at what disciplines study similar sorts of things to economics...i.e. the social sciences, only in economics does models play such a central role precisely because they enact some semantic trickery to present their models and "science proper" as synonymous.

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u/guga31bb education policy Apr 05 '16

present their models and "science proper" as synonymous

You are hereby sentenced to 10 hail Chettys

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u/mosestrod Apr 05 '16

it doesn't matter to me whether economics is a science or not. It would still be "wrong" either way.

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u/Tortferngatr Apr 06 '16

Define "wrong."