IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/minsoc/v20y2021i1d10.1007_s11299-020-00264-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A small step towards unification of economics and physics

Author

Listed:
  • Subhendu Bhattacharyya

    (Life Insurance Corporation of India, Eastern Zonal Office)

Abstract

Unification of natural science and social science is a centuries-old, unmitigated debate. Natural science has a chronological advantage over social science because the latter took time to include many social phenomena in its fold. History of science witnessed quite a number of efforts by social scientists to fit this discipline in a rational if not mathematical framework. On the other hand a tendency among some physicists has been observed especially since the last century to recast a number of social phenomena in the mould of events taking place in physical world and governed by well-known systems and equations of physics. It necessitated the introduction of social physics as a new inter-disciplinary subject. Obviously this attempt is aimed at explaining hitherto unsolved or highly debated issues of social science. Physicists are showing special interest on problems on economics, ranging from some topics of normative economics to the movement of prices of derivatives. Statistics has been widely used in these attempts and at least two sub-disciplines of the subject, namely, stochastic process and time series analysis deserve special mention. All these research activities gave birth to another inter-disciplinary subject named as econophysics. Interestingly, global financial crisis of 2007–08 has revived the need of determination of prices of derivatives in a more accurate manner. This article adumbrates a sketch of the theoretical synthesis between physics and economics and the role played by statistics in this process.

Suggested Citation

  • Subhendu Bhattacharyya, 2021. "A small step towards unification of economics and physics," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 20(1), pages 69-84, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:minsoc:v:20:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s11299-020-00264-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11299-020-00264-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11299-020-00264-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11299-020-00264-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brisset, Nicolas, 2017. "On Performativity: Option Theory And The Resistance Of Financial Phenomena," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(4), pages 549-569, December.
    2. Wible, James R. & Hoover, Kevin D., 2015. "Mathematical Economics Comes To America: Charles S. Peirce’S Engagement With Cournot’S Recherches Sur Les Principes Mathã‰Matiques De La Thã‰Orie Des Richesses," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(4), pages 511-536, December.
    3. Jovanovic, Franck & Schinckus, Christophe, 2013. "Econophysics: A New Challenge For Financial Economics?," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(3), pages 319-352, September.
    4. Weintraub, E. Roy, 2017. "Mccarthyism And The Mathematization Of Economics," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(4), pages 571-597, December.
    5. Bjerkholt, Olav, 2017. "On The Founding Of The Econometric Society," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(2), pages 175-198, June.
    6. Bordo, Michael D. & Rockoff, Hugh, 2013. "The Influence Of Irving Fisher On Milton Friedman’S Monetary Economics," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 153-177, June.
    7. Scheall, Scott, 2015. "Hayek The Apriorist?," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 87-110, March.
    8. Scott, Sonya, 2018. "Mathematics Is The Lantern: Vito Volterra, Lã‰On Walras, And Irving Fisher On The Mathematization Of Economics," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(4), pages 513-537, December.
    9. Nicolas Brisset, 2017. "On Performativity: Option Theory And The Resistance Of Financial Phenomena," Post-Print halshs-01646210, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicolas Brisset, 2018. "Models as speech acts: the telling case of financial models," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 21-41, January.
    2. Paulo Ferreira & Éder J.A.L. Pereira & Hernane B.B. Pereira, 2020. "From Big Data to Econophysics and Its Use to Explain Complex Phenomena," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-10, July.
    3. Geoffrey Poitras & John Heaney, 2015. "Classical Ergodicity and Modern Portfolio Theory," Post-Print hal-03680380, HAL.
    4. Schilirò, Daniele & Young, Warren, 2021. "The Econometric Society European meetings 1931-1939: Influences on economics," MPRA Paper 109270, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Sylvie Rivot, 2020. "Information and Expectations in Policy-Making: Friedman's Changing Approaches to Macroeconomic Dynamics," GREDEG Working Papers 2020-39, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    6. Brisset, Nicolas, 2017. "On Performativity: Option Theory And The Resistance Of Financial Phenomena," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 39(4), pages 549-569, December.
    7. Michael T. Belongia & Peter N. Ireland, 2016. "Money and Output: Friedman and Schwartz Revisited," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(6), pages 1223-1266, September.
    8. Antonella Rancan, 2021. "Econometric modelling in Italy: From economic planning to academic research," HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND POLICY, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 10(1), pages 63-82.
    9. Kolev, Stefan, 2021. "Ein Baltendeutscher bei den Preußen des Balkans: Oskar Anderson und das Sofioter Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (SWIFO)," HWWI Research Papers 198, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI).
    10. Scott Scheall, 2017. "What is extreme about Mises’s extreme apriorism?," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 226-249, July.
    11. Rafael Galvão de Almeida, 2019. "How economics became an interventionist science (and how it ceased to be)," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG 612, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais.
    12. Nikolaos Th. Chatzarakis, 2021. "Revisiting the role and consequences of Econophysics from a Marxian perspective," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 15(1), pages 45-68, June.
    13. Schinckus, C., 2013. "Between complexity of modelling and modelling of complexity: An essay on econophysics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(17), pages 3654-3665.
    14. Robert W. Dimand, 2019. "The Cowles Commission and Foundation for Research in Economics," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2207, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    15. Faria, João Ricardo & Goel, Rajeev K. & Manage, Neela D., 2023. "The path of economics research production: Insights into the seesaw between theory and empirics," Kiel Working Papers 2238, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    16. Tavlas, George S., 2021. "A Reconsideration Of The Doctrinal Foundations Of Monetary Policy Rules: Fisher Versus Chicago," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 55-82, March.
    17. Boris Salazar, 2016. "Mandelbrot, Fama and the emergence of econophysics," Revista Cuadernos de Economia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, FCE, CID, vol. 35(69), pages 637-662, April.
    18. Dimand, Robert W., 2023. "Irving Fisher, Ragnar Frisch and the Elusive Quest for Measurable Utility," SocArXiv vmzua, Center for Open Science.
    19. Belyanova, E. & Makasheva, N., 2020. "The constructivist project 'Econometrics-1930': Implementation of the impossible or realization of inevitable?," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 47(3), pages 158-177.
    20. M.J. Boumans, 2018. "Survey on Recent Work in the History of Econometrics: A Witness Report," Working Papers 18-10, Utrecht School of Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:minsoc:v:20:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1007_s11299-020-00264-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.