Blog-Reference
“To be sure, economics may perform a valuable social role without adding any significant understanding to knowledge of the economy — a “good myth,” economically speaking, can work not only in primitive tribal cultures but also in modern societies. ... Indeed, ... the religious function may have been the most important role throughout the history of modern economics since the Enlightenment.” (Nelson, 2006, pp. 300-301)
We had the separation of church and state, what is needed next is the separation of politics and economics.
The task of the economist is to figure out how the actual Economy works, just like the physicist figures out how Nature works. What the economist has first of all to do is to take an objective observer standpoint — as far as possible. This is not compatible with taking a political side.
I am, of course, not against taking a political side. What I emphasize is that it is humanly impossible to do politics and science simultaneously. Because of this, institutional separation is necessary.
I have no trouble acknowledging that, for example, Hayek has the right to write political pamphlets, defend Capitalism, support Thatcher, and found a political club as he did with the Mont Pèlerin Society (MPS). What I say is, the moment he or any other economist starts with politics, the same moment he leaves economics understood as a science for good. It is the mixture that is toxic. Independently of this, Hayek is simply unacceptable as an economist. His economics is proto-scientific garbage.
You cite many cases of economists involved simultaneously in academia/business/politics that simply are not compatible with scientific ethics. Now, I cannot check them and, most importantly, I do not want to occupy myself with corrupt people in science, politics, business, and elsewhere. Something went wrong with these institutions, that much is clear at the moment. A lot of corruption fighters are needed, that much is also clear. Finally, a lot of institution-builders are needed, obviously. But the rest is hanging in the air at the moment.
This is why I urge heterodox economists not to become redundant quacking frogs in the swamp of political economics but instead to focus on economics as a science. The first step is to refute political economists according to well-defined scientific rules. As Feynman put it: "So we really ought to look into theories that don't work, and science that isn't science." (1974, p. 11)#1
Orthodox economics is scientifically substandard. Heterodoxy is not any better. There is much opportunity to develop something better.
Egmont Kakarot-Handtke
References
Feynman, R. P. (1974). Cargo Cult Science. Engineering and Science, 37(7): 10–13. URL
Nelson, R. H. (2006). Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.
#1 The Farce That Is Economics: Richard Feynman On The Social Sciences
For more about the separation of science and politics see AXECquery.
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Wikimedia AXEC166a
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Twitter/X Sep 11, 2024, The separation of science and politics is gaining ground
