*This journal is dedicated to Febronia Mansour, who, in the course of setting up an interview with me, has forced me to do much thinking on many topics.*
I knew, at the outset of this project, that I would be hard-pressed to dedicate the time and energy to it that I wanted to. My experience of the past few weeks has confirmed that prediction. I leave my house before 7:30am, I get home after 10:00pm, and then I run for 1-4 hours. Every day. This leaves very little time for my project. I have been working on my first Self-Designed Assessment, which will be a paper that attempts to redefine some of the foundational concepts in economics so as to gain greater insights into their meanings. However, this “work” has proceeded one paragraph at a time, usually slipped in at the end of a very long day. Therefore, although a first draft has been completed, I need to find a long span of free time when I can sit down and fit together all the disjointed paragraphs into a more coherent whole. While I’m waiting for such a block of time to appear, I thought I’d use this journal to briefly discuss the science of economics itself.
In the past, I’ve defined economics as the study of human action (purposeful behavior) under conditions of scarcity. This definition was meant to contrast itself with the mainstream definitions of economics, which usually have something to do with wealth or material conditions, and to thereby highlight the broader scope of properly-understood economics. However, after some recent thinking on the subject, I’ve only just come to realize how broad this subject truly is. Economics is the study of what makes us human, as opposed to stones or lower life forms.
Every science is a search for knowledge, but, more specifically, every science is a search for knowledge that can serve man. As I explained in my post on the 5Cs, man seeks knowledge for a specific purpose, so that he can accomplish some task. Science is an attempt to trace every phenomenon back to its cause, to provide an understanding of cause and effect, so that man can bring about his desired changes in the world.
Now, man’s freedom to act is constrained by three sets of laws: physical, physiological, and praxeological. The physical sciences seek to understand and elucidate how the world works. The life sciences seek to understand and elucidate the functions of life. And the human sciences seek to understand and elucidate the distinctive characteristic of human activity, i.e., the purpose behind it.
The sciences are discovering rules that apply to us, as they must if they are to properly serve us. The laws of physics apply to us because we are matter and energy, and are useful to the extent that we seek to shape matter and energy. The laws of biology apply to us because we are alive, and are useful to the extent that we seek to improve and preserve life. And the laws of economics apply to us because we are human, and are useful to the extent that we seek to interact with and influence our fellow man.
Economics, then, is far more than some form of business theory, or a mere means of explaining the wealth of nations, as many people believe. Economics is a principal science, the study of man as a human being. The knowledge it provides is applicable to all fields of human activity. Moreover, because the purpose of all science is to serve man, at least a basic understanding of man must precede any scientific venture. Therefore, not only does economic knowledge apply to every field of human activity; every field of human activity requires economic knowledge.
“[Economics] is the philosophy of human life and action and concerns everybody and everything. It is the pith of civilization and of man’s human existence.” -Ludwig von Mises
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