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Economics not engineering

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  • Richard Adelstein

    (Wesleyan University)

Abstract

Economics, ideally a positive science pursuing knowledge “for its own sake,” is distinguished from engineering, an intrinsically purposive attempt to control nature or people to serve human interests. The attempt to meld them in a new transdiscipline inappositely brings engineering’s element of purpose to what should be a positive economic science. Only Mariotti’s economics and engineering maintains the critical distance necessary for economic scientists to evaluate the purposes to which economic engineers put their theories. The history of scientific management is briefly sketched to suggest that the new transdiscipline is likely to be reduced to a tool for profit-seeking, an economics for engineering.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Adelstein, 2021. "Economics not engineering," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 48(4), pages 573-579, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:epolin:v:48:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s40812-021-00194-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s40812-021-00194-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hayek, F. A., 2010. "Studies on the Abuse and Decline of Reason," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226321127 edited by Caldwell, Bruce, Febrero.
    2. Hayek, F. A., 2010. "Studies on the Abuse and Decline of Reason," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, number 9780226321097 edited by Caldwell, Bruce, December.
    3. Taylor, Frederick Winslow, 1911. "The Principles of Scientific Management," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number taylor1911.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sergio Mariotti, 2022. "The economics–engineering nexus: response to the commentaries," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 49(1), pages 1-29, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Transdisciplinarity; Purpose in economics and engineering; Scientific management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A12 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
    • B50 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - General
    • N01 - Economic History - - General - - - Development of the Discipline: Historiographical; Sources and Methods

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