From: m.lepore-AT-genie.geis.com Date: Wed, 22 Mar 95 23:41:00 UTC Subject: Sciences and their founders Every science begins with a class of questions or problems, and makes the approximations which are appropriate to them. Variables or entire processes may be neglected when their effect of the 'answer' is negligible, relative to the subject in which the investigators are interested. I've never heard any physicist say that Einstein refuted Newton. What they say is that Newton is a special case of Einstein, the one in which velocities are small compared to the speed of light. Similarly, optics is a special case of Maxwell's equations, one in which electromagnetic wavefronts move in straight rays. Electric circuit theory is a special case of Maxwell's equations, one in which behavior can be understood as a connection of discrete elements. Classical mechanics is a special case of quantum mechanics, one in which the sizes of objects and events are much larger than the wavelengths, and energy levels much larger than quantum energy states. For that matter, Marxian economics doesn't consider capitalist economics "wrong" either. Its just a special case for people who don't wish to address the center lines of the ratios of the exchange of various commodities, and they only care about the fluctuations about those levels. A commodity trader doesn't care why wheat has the value it does at this epoch in history, but only cares about the changes in its price tomorrow relative to its price yesterday. Capitalist economics in its entirety is only a tube: pour investments into one end and get profits out the other end. It's not "incorrect", but it's an extremely narrow application of understanding. Marxian economics seeks to widen and not to narrow the focus of understanding, relating observations to causal relationships throughout the system. That's why Marxian economics is a pioneer step in making economic analysis as scientific as possible. Mike Lepore mlepore-AT-mcimail.com --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu --- ------------------
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