History of Science: What Place for Economics and Management?[Histoire de la science : quelle place pour l’économie et la gestion ?]

This work paper examines the place assigned to economics and management in successive classifications of knowledge, from the Aristotelian hierarchy to contemporary institutional nomenclatures, and argues that the lasting subordination of these disciplines—long relegated to the rank of uncertain arts—stems from a historical and axiological construct rather than an epistemic necessity. By re-examining the often-obscured contribution of Arab-Islamic thought—from al-Kindî to Ibn Khaldûn, including al-Dimashqî—and the subsequent transmission through scholasticism, mercantilism, and physiocracy to classical political economy, the analysis demonstrates that the scientific rationalization of economic and organizational action predates its Western institutionalization by several centuries. The requalification brought about by the sciences of the artificial, socio-technology, and Design Science Research dissolves the old hierarchy in favor of a criterion of verifiable efficacy. Finally, the article proposes a comparative analysis of Comte's and the OECD's classifications, sketches a reclassification, and concludes with three open questions.