File spoon-archives/marxism.archive/marxism_1995/95-03-31.000, message 315


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
 
 


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