Economics As A Social Science

Economics is a so-called social science in that it involves people and not just numbers and statistics. However, these days, economics, maybe to show that, as an academic discipline, it has become a math, calculus, formulized discipline, like maybe Physics to show how important it is. Math and formulas etc. are important. But I feel economics may have lost its way in that it has forgotten it is a social science, people is still the heart of economics.

The same maybe can be said for business. As Drucker has stated, management is a liberal art, and as such deals with people and not just numbers

An economy or society is a very complex system that can't be rationalized just by economic formulas, even if the formula is trying to describe one small part of an economy, its still about people and behavior, desires, wants, needs, and expectations, which often can be irrational and very difficult to measure or even describe.

It has been said economics is an observation science as laboratory experiments are not easily done on the economy and such. Of course better computer simulations, big data, and AI are moving in that direction, but at the same time human behavior, which is at the heart of any society, can't maybe never will be completely explained by a formula or computer as the variables involved, genes, background, present anxiety, brain/cognitive behaviors, expectations, which can change in an instant, and a host of thousands of other variables, are almost impossible to pinpoint exactly which variable has what affect on human behavior etc.

Yes different parts of a economy and society, because of their complexity, should be studied, observed, and examined individually and but also in their interactions with other parts of the society and the economy.

All economics can really do is observe and try their best to describe what is happening and why, realizing that their is no perfect experiment to really identify this situation.

Economics is an imperfect social science because, for the most part, it deals with human behavior, and there is not a better example than to see what is happening today in the world, that human behavior is completely unpredictable.

Societies are about people and the study of a society, economy, and people, can't be put into one simple formula. There is too much complexity involved.

Even economics needs the humanities and the liberal arts to help explain what might be happening at any one time.

Finally, I always felt, for the most part, Japan as a country and society has not forgotten that people are a resource and not just a commodity to be used and thrown away.

Yes Japan, unfortunately has become somewhat westernized it is business approach, but I hope Japan does not lose its sense of identity that people are what matters in an economy and society.

As I like to survey Japanese universities, I have noticed that most if not all Japanese universities have economic departments. It seems economics is a major field of study in Japan, if not the largest department in many Japanese universities. I hope Japanese university economic departments see the need to also include human behavior as an important study, with integration of the liberal arts and humanities in their observations along with numbers and formulas.



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