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description= 15 posts published by Lars Syll during March 2026;
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the, of, economics, total, nonsense, recent, comments, lars, syll, ça, plane, pour, moi, school, manifesto, for, future, still, shining, after, all, these, years, perfect, day, personal, on, poverty, economic, model, platonism, who, owns, national, debt, rich, critical, realism, morphogenetic, approach, walk, life, what, wrong, with, neoliberal, work, absurd, fiction, habermas, im, unabgeschlossenen, dialog, mit, adorno, real, business, cycles, theory, how, to, make, progress, in, quantitative, analysis, foucault, empirical, insights, and, normative, confusions, nairu, posts, policy, reading, list, categories, archives,
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the (389), and (242), that (125), not (76), #school (69), are (66), for (55), new (52), world (52), share (45), opens (45), window (45), this (41), society (37), with (37), what (34), real (34), should (34), models (33), mar (32), one (32), its (32), they (32), from (31), more (31), der (31), bluesky (30), facebook (30), but (30), has (29), economic (28), must (27), may (26), their (26), social (26), can (26), die (26), cannot (25), und (25), have (23), economics (23), 2026 (22), our (22), jan (19), when (19), all (19), about (18), pupils (18), theory (17), how (17), something (17), knowledge (17), comments (16), apr (16), jun (16), posted (16), model (16), habermas (16), between (16), than (16), assumptions (16), future (16), jul (15), aug (15), sep (15), oct (15), nov (15), dec (15), feb (15), only (15), own (15), these (15), today (15), such (14), make (14), without (14), analysis (14), kind (14), any (13), there (13), whole (13), dass (13), individual (13), other (12), 2012 (12), 2013 (12), 2014 (12), 2015 (12), 2016 (12), 2017 (12), 2018 (12), 2019 (12), 2020 (12), 2021 (12), 2022 (12), 2023 (12), 2024 (12), 2025 (12), science (12), time (12), does (12), theoretical (12), empirical (12), which (12), then (12), also (12), often (12), possible (12), you (12), where (12), analytical (12), identity (12), lönebildning (11), och (11), arbetslöshet (11), like (11), economists (11), debt (11), lars (10), 2011 (10), since (10), normative (10), into (10), important (10), different (10), rational (10), able (10), point (10), theories (10), people (10), das (10), vernunft (10), adorno (10), some (10), parts (10), reality (10), life (10), lives (10), will (9), nothing (9), long (9), equilibrium (9), demand (9), foucault (9), was (9), through (9), even (9), rather (9), them (9), true (9), off (9), sie (9), anything (9), approach (9), being (8), den (8), unemployment (8), out (8), problems (8), way (8), power (8), want (8), für (8), would (8), necessary (8), know (8), logic (8), individuals (8), system (8), family (8), comment (7), full (7), why (7), nonsense (7), simply (7), self (7), means (7), assumption (7), well (7), just (7), many (7), employment (7), say (7), becomes (7), modern (7), work (7), difference (7), under (7), potential (7), evidence (7), however (7), explain (7), theorie (7), provide (7), live (7), never (7), relevant (7), starting (7), systems (7), based (7), separate (7), economy (7), conditions (7), public (7), lifeworld (7), same (6), better (6), nairu (6), because (6), run (6), information (6), very (6), modelling (6), use (6), logical (6), itself (6), sound (6), hand (6), needs (6), precise (6), interest (6), estimand (6), less (6), been (6), most (6), business (6), down (6), pure (6), think (6), von (6), kritik (6), nicht (6), sich (6), auf (6), mainstream (6), aspirations (6), things (6), else (6), uncertain (6), method (6), complex (6), actions (6), contrary (6), still (6), young (6), present (6), content (5), already (5), now 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mistic knowledge one then expects to be able to predict and explain the behaviour of the complex and complicated whole in economics this means taking the economic system dividing it into its separate parts analysing these parts one at a time and then after separate analysis putting the pieces back together the analytical approach is typically used in economic modelling where one begins with a simple model containing few isolated and idealised variables through successive approximations one then adds more variables aiming finally to arrive at a true model of the whole this may sound like a convincing and sound scientific approach the approach however rests on a precarious assumption the procedure only works effectively when one has a machine like whole a system or economy where the parts exist in fixed and stable configurations and if there is anything we know about reality it is that it is not a machine the world we inhabit is not a closed system on the contrary it is an essentially open system things are uncertain relational interdependent complex and ever changing without assuming that the underlying structure of the economy you are trying to analyse remains stable and invariant there is no chance the equations in your model will hold constant this is the very rationale for economists use often only implicitly of the ceteris paribus assumption but nota bene this can only be a hypothesis you must argue the case for it if you cannot supply any sustainable justifications or warrants for the adequacy of that assumption then the entire analytical economic project becomes pointless uninformative nonsense not only must we assume that we can shield variables from each other analytically external closure we must also assume that each variable itself is amenable to being understood as a stable regularity producing machine internal closure we know of course that this is generally not possible some things relations and structures are not analytically graspable trying to analyse parenthood marriage or employment piece by piece does not make sense to be a chieftain a capital owner or a slave is not an individual property of a person it can only exist when individuals are integral parts of certain social structures and positions social relations and contexts cannot be reduced to individual phenomena a cheque presupposes a banking system and being a tribe member presupposes a tribe by failing to account for this in their analytical approach economic analysis becomes uninformative nonsense using logical and analytical methods in the social sciences often means economists succumb to the fallacy of composition the belief that the whole is nothing but the sum of its parts in society and the economy this is arguably not the case an adequate analysis of society and the economy a fortiori cannot proceed by merely adding up the acts and decisions of individuals the whole is more than the sum of its parts mainstream economics is built on using the analytical method the models built with this method presuppose that social reality is closed since social reality is known to be fundamentally open it is difficult to see how such models can explain anything about what happens in such a universe postulating closed conditions to make models operational and then imputing these closed conditions to society s actual structure is an unwarranted procedure that fails to take necessary ontological considerations seriously in the face of the methodological individualism and rational choice theory that dominate mainstream economics we must admit that whilst knowing the aspirations and intentions of individuals is necessary for explaining social events it is far from sufficient even the most elementary rational actions in society presuppose the existence of social forms that cannot be reduced to individual intentions here the analytical method fails once more the overarching flaw with the analytical economic approach using methodological individualism and rational choice theory is that it reduces social explanations to purportedly individual characteristics but many of an individual s characteristics and actions originate in and are made possible only through society and its relations society is not a wittgensteinian tractatus world characterised by atomistic states of affairs society is not reducible to individuals since the social characteristics forces and actions of the individual are determined by pre existing social structures and positions even though society is not a volitional individual and the individual is not an entity existing outside society the individual actor and society structure must be kept analytically distinct they are tied together through the individual s reproduction and transformation of already given social structures since at least the marginal revolution in economics in the 1870s it has been an essential feature of the discipline to analytically treat individuals as essentially independent and separate entities of action and decision but in truth in a complex organic and evolutionary system like an economy that kind of independence is a profoundly unrealistic assumption to simply assume strict independence between the variables we try to analyse does not help us in the least if that hypothesis proves unwarranted to apply the analytical approach economists must essentially assume that the universe consists of atoms that exercise their own separate and invariable effects such that the whole consists of nothing but an addition of these separate atoms and their changes these simplistic assumptions of isolation atomicity and additivity are however at odds with reality in real world settings we know that ever changing contexts make it futile to seek knowledge through such reductionist assumptions real world individuals are not reducible to contentless atoms and are thus not susceptible to atomistic analysis the world is not reducible to a set of atomistic individuals and states how variable x works and influences real world economies in situation a cannot simply be assumed to be understood by looking at how x works in situation b knowledge of x probably tells us little if we do not consider its dependence on y and z it can never be legitimate simply to assume the world is atomistic assuming real world additivity cannot be correct if the entities around us are not atoms but organic entities if we want to develop new and better economics we must give up the single minded insistence on using a deductivist straitjacket methodology and the analytical method to focus scientific endeavours solely on proving things within models is a gross misapprehension of the purpose of economic theory deductivist models and analytical methods disconnected from reality are not relevant for predicting explaining or understanding real world economies to have consistent models and valid evidence is not enough what economics needs are real world relevant models and sound evidence aiming only for consistency and validity sets the aspirations of economics too low for developing a realistic and relevant science economics is not mathematics or logic it is about society the real world models may help us think through problems but we should never forget that the formalism we use in our models is not self evidently transportable to a largely unknown and uncertain reality the tragedy of mainstream economic theory is that it believes the logic and mathematics it uses are sufficient for dealing with our real world problems they are not model deductions based on questionable assumptions can never be anything but pure exercises in hypothetical reasoning the world in which we live is inherently uncertain and quantifiable probabilities are the exception rather than the rule to every statement about it is attached a weight of argument that makes it impossible to reduce our beliefs and expectations to a one dimensional stochastic probability distribution if god does not play dice as einstein maintained i would add nor do people the world as we know it has limited scope for certainty and perfect knowledge its intrinsic and almost unlimited complexity and the interrelatedness of its organic parts prevent us from treating it as if it were constituted by legal atoms with discretely distinct separable and stable causal relations our knowledge accordingly has to be of a rather fallible kind if the real world is fuzzy vague and indeterminate then why should our models be built upon a desire to describe it as precise and predictable even if there always has to be a trade off between theory internal validity and external validity we must ask ourselves if our models are truly relevant human logic must supplant the classical formal logic of deductivism if we wish to say anything interesting about the real world we inhabit logic is a marvellous tool in mathematics and axiomatic deductivist systems but a poor guide for action in real world systems where concepts and entities lack clear boundaries and continually interact and overlap in this world we are better served by a methodology that acknowledges that the more we know the more we know we do not know mathematics and logic cannot establish the truth value of facts never have never will share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x share on bluesky opens in new window bluesky neoliberal economics a work of absurd fiction 24 mar 2026 at 12 12 posted in economics comments off on neoliberal economics a work of absurd fiction rigorous and precise economic models cannot be considered anything else than unsubstantiated conjectures as long as they aren t supported by evidence from outside the theory or model to my knowledge no in any way decisive empirical evidence has been presented no matter how precise and rigorous the analysis and no matter how hard one tries to cast the argument in modern mathematical form these models do not push economic science forward one single millimetre if they do not stand the acid test of relevance to the target no matter how clear precise rigorous or certain the inferences delivered inside these models are they do not say anything about real world economies proving things rigorously in a model is at most a starting point for doing an interesting and relevant economic analysis forgetting to supply export warrants to the real world makes the analysis an empty exercise in formalism without real scientific value the kind of knowledge we seek in science differs from what we look for in fiction building fictional models that we all know are false not merely in the sense that they idealise or abstract all models do but in the sense that no amount of corrections amendments or successive approximations will ever make them true of the real world phenomena they aim to describe cannot be the right way to proceed in science although such model assumptions often of a mathematical kind are necessary for tractability they are far from harmless since they usually cannot be relaxed what drives them is their exact necessary form without which the sought after results would never be obtained if this kind of economic modelling as argued by some economic methodologists gives us the same kind of knowledge as we get in ordinary fiction well then surely we should seriously reconsider what we are doing letting tractability rather than reason decide what assumptions we make in our theories and models is not what we need if we want to build a realist and relevant economic science mainstream economists think there is a gain from the mathematical style of modelling in its capacity to offer some kind of structure around which to organise discussions to me that sounds more like religious theoretical methodological dogma where one paradigm rules in divine hegemony that s not progress that s the death of economics as a science showing that something is possible in a possible world doesn t give us a justified license to infer that it is also possible in the real world the great gatsby is a wonderful novel but if you truly want to learn about what is going on in the world of finance i would recommend reading minsky or keynes and directly confronting real world finance the assumptions and descriptions we use in our modelling have to be true or at least harmlessly false and give a sufficiently detailed characterisation of the mechanisms and forces at work models in mainstream economics do nothing of the kind our aspirations have to be more far reaching than just constructing coherent and credible models about possible worlds we want to understand and explain difference making in the real world and not just in some made up fantasy world science has to be something more than just more or less realistic story telling or explanatory fictionalism you have to provide decisive empirical evidence that what you can infer in your model also helps us to uncover what actually goes on in the real world if you fail to support your models in that way you come up with nothing that holds as an explanation of what goes on in the world in which we live postulating representative agents equipped with rational expectations may help mainstream neoliberal economists derive sought after results like equilibrium stability and downward sloping demand curves but telling us that something is possible in a patently artificial fictional world inhabited by representative agents equipped with rational expectations is not enough showing us that something possibly can happen in a model world is not enough to explain what actually happens in the real world share on facebook opens in new window facebook share on x opens in new window x share on bluesky opens in new window bluesky habermas im unabgeschlossenen dialog mit adorno 23 mar 2026 at 22 00 posted in politics society 1 comment dass die kritische theorie nicht irgendeine sondern die in frankfurt entstandene nur im ständigen hin und her zwischen kant und hegel fortzuführen sei wussten beide vom ersten moment ihrer begegnung an ihr pakt lag darin begründet dass sie sich über die zentralstellung dieser philosophischen konstellation einig waren beide teilten von beginn an auch die überzeugung dass ohne eine einbeziehung des marxschen denkens die spannung zwischen kant und hegel für die gegenwart nicht hinreichend fruchtbar zu machen wäre uneinig war und blieb man sich untereinander allein über die rolle die nietzsche für die kritische theorie spielen sollte während adorno glaubte ein element genealogischen denkens in seine vernunftkritik einbeziehen zu müssen war dies für habermas der eine schritt zu weit der das risiko einer wiederkehr irrationalen gedankenguts mit sich bringen würde wir werden habermas nicht mehr vom gegenteil überzeugen können sein tod bedeutet das ende des fiktiven dialogs den er zeitlebens mit adorno seinem einzigen lehrer geführt hat darin besteht die geistesgeschichtliche tragik seines ablebens für die kritische theorie man stünde so hat habermas am grab von adorno ges...
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