For citation:
Balatsky, E. V. (2025). On the Verge of a New Economic Science Paradigm. AlterEconomics, 22(1), 6–21. https://doi.org/10.31063/AlterEconomics/2025.22-1.2
Abstract:
This article examines the current methodological deadlock in economic science, manifested in a phenomenon of large-scale self-negation, which takes two interrelated forms. The first type of self-negation is deep and involves the academic community quietly dismissing the contributions of major economists from the past, making their ideas and developments seem outdated. The second type of self-negation is linked to economists losing interest in the mathematical tools used for operational research, resulting in their limited practical application. It is argued that the need to restructure modern economics is driven by three key factors. The first is the methodological inversion of knowledge occurring before our eyes, shifting from an additive to a subtractive principle. The second is the widespread presence of Bauman’s paradox in economics. The third is the inability of economics to address the most pressing contemporary issues. All of the above suggests that economics stands on the verge of a new scientific paradigm. The article shows that this paradigm will be built on the following principles: a constructivist approach, in which economists will design new production and social systems with predefined properties to achieve desired outcomes; the elimination of Bauman’s paradox, ensuring that specific problems precede the development of models and their solutions; the principle of multi-causality, integrating ideology, institutions, and geography into economic theory; and the principle of formal flexibility, where mathematical rigor no longer exerts a self-sufficient influence.
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