Speculative science (“fairy tale science”) in physics, cosmology, and economics
The paper juxtaposes two recent books dealing with reality issues in a broad sense. The first of these, by Baggott (2013,) examines and criticizes the historically increasing trend to base scientific conclusions on mathematical hypotheses and logical consistency rather than on empirical evidence --...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | deu |
| Published: |
Asociación Española de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas (AECA)
2016-12-01
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| Series: | De Computis |
| Online Access: | http://decomputis.org/ojs/index.php/decomputis/article/view/251 |
| _version_ | 1811192286711644160 |
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| author | Richard Mattessich Giuseppe Galassi |
| author_facet | Richard Mattessich Giuseppe Galassi |
| author_sort | Richard Mattessich |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The paper juxtaposes two recent books dealing with reality issues in a broad sense. The first of these, by Baggott (2013,) examines and criticizes the historically increasing trend to base scientific conclusions on mathematical hypotheses and logical consistency rather than on empirical evidence -- Bagott calls this trend “fairy tale science”. The second book, Tegmark (2014),i defends the opposite view – it considers Mathematics as identical to Reality and promotes increasing reliance of modern physics and cosmology on mathematical assumptions and logical consistencies rather than empirical evidence -- defending such controversial conclusions that we live in one of infinitely many parallel universes with numerous alter egos of each of us. But this is not a book review of Baggott (2013) and Tegmark (2014); its aim is to draw attention to the fact that social scientists are not the only scholars blamed for paying too much attention to model building and too little to empirical confirmation. This, ought to be of enormous interest to financial scholars; it may even be a consolation to some of them for emphasizing mathematical consistency rather than empirical confirmation. But our examples (from “speculative science” in finance) illustrate that such a trend caused staggering losses during the financial crisis of 1997-1998 (of Japan and Russia) and serious threats to the entire World Economic System during the crisis of 2007-2008. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T23:50:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b86e8f3d1fa64147af023e0d6f0e61b0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1886-1881 |
| language | deu |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T23:50:06Z |
| publishDate | 2016-12-01 |
| publisher | Asociación Española de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas (AECA) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | De Computis |
| spelling | doaj.art-b86e8f3d1fa64147af023e0d6f0e61b02022-12-22T03:56:31ZdeuAsociación Española de Contabilidad y Administración de Empresas (AECA)De Computis1886-18812016-12-011325203410.26784/issn.1886-1881.v13i25.251226Speculative science (“fairy tale science”) in physics, cosmology, and economicsRichard Mattessich0Giuseppe Galassi1University of British Columbia, Vancouver B.C., CanadaUniversity of ParmaThe paper juxtaposes two recent books dealing with reality issues in a broad sense. The first of these, by Baggott (2013,) examines and criticizes the historically increasing trend to base scientific conclusions on mathematical hypotheses and logical consistency rather than on empirical evidence -- Bagott calls this trend “fairy tale science”. The second book, Tegmark (2014),i defends the opposite view – it considers Mathematics as identical to Reality and promotes increasing reliance of modern physics and cosmology on mathematical assumptions and logical consistencies rather than empirical evidence -- defending such controversial conclusions that we live in one of infinitely many parallel universes with numerous alter egos of each of us. But this is not a book review of Baggott (2013) and Tegmark (2014); its aim is to draw attention to the fact that social scientists are not the only scholars blamed for paying too much attention to model building and too little to empirical confirmation. This, ought to be of enormous interest to financial scholars; it may even be a consolation to some of them for emphasizing mathematical consistency rather than empirical confirmation. But our examples (from “speculative science” in finance) illustrate that such a trend caused staggering losses during the financial crisis of 1997-1998 (of Japan and Russia) and serious threats to the entire World Economic System during the crisis of 2007-2008.http://decomputis.org/ojs/index.php/decomputis/article/view/251 |
| spellingShingle | Richard Mattessich Giuseppe Galassi Speculative science (“fairy tale science”) in physics, cosmology, and economics De Computis |
| title | Speculative science (“fairy tale science”) in physics, cosmology, and economics |
| title_full | Speculative science (“fairy tale science”) in physics, cosmology, and economics |
| title_fullStr | Speculative science (“fairy tale science”) in physics, cosmology, and economics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Speculative science (“fairy tale science”) in physics, cosmology, and economics |
| title_short | Speculative science (“fairy tale science”) in physics, cosmology, and economics |
| title_sort | speculative science fairy tale science in physics cosmology and economics |
| url | http://decomputis.org/ojs/index.php/decomputis/article/view/251 |
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