The Limits to Certainty / Edition 2

by O. Giarini, W.R. Stahel

Overview

I consider it a privilege to have been invited to write a preface for "The Limits to Certainty". It is however paradoxical that a theo­ retical physicist be asked to write about a monograph dealing mainly with service economics. Notwithstanding, I am delighted to do so. Indeed, it is striking that two so widely different fields like physics and social science, and more especially economics, can interact in such a constructive way. There is no question here of reductionism. Nobody claims to be able to reduce social scien­ ces to physics, nor to use patterns of social interaction in order to formulate new laws for atoms. What is at stake here is more im­ portant than reduction; the age-old separation between the so-cal­ led "hard" and "soft sciences" is breaking down. This separation has a long history. First, one should recall the influence of Newton's achievement on the formulation of scienti­ fic goals. This influence led to the formulation of equilibrium mo­ dels for supply/demand adjustment. As was noticed by Walter Weisskopf: "the Newtonian paradigm underlying classical and non-classical economics interpreted the economy according to the patterns developed in classical physics and mechanics, in analogy to the planetary system, to a machine or clockwork: a closed auto­ nomous system ruled by endogenous factors of a highly selective nature, self-regulating and moving to a determinate, predictable point of equilibrium" (The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance (1984), Vol. 9, no. 33, pp. 335-360).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780792321675
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	04/30/1993
Series:	International Studies in the Service Economy , #4
Edition description:	2nd rev. ed. 1993
Pages:	271
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.36(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 1.1. In Search of Progress: From “The Limits to Growth” To “The Limits to Certainty”.- 1.2. Three Major Issues in Reconstructing an Image of the Future.- 1.3. Uncertainty: the Condition for Reconstructing the Future.- Notes Chapter 1.- 2. The New Battleground for Risk-Taking: The Service Economy.- 2.1. The Legacy of the Industrial Revolution.- 2.2. The Limits of the Industrial Revolution.- 2.3. The “Service” Economy.- 2.4. Value and Time in the Service Economy: the Notion of Utilization.- Notes Chapter 2.- 3. Facing Social Uncertainty: Towards a New Social Policy in the Service Economy.- 3.1. Basic Issues.- 3.2. Towards the Fourth Pillar: Trends.- 3.3. The Fourth Pillar in some OECD Countries: From Evidence to Potential.- Notes Chapter 3.- 4. Producing the Wealth of Nations; the Risk Takers and the Supply-side of the Economy. The Dynamics of Disequilibrium.- 4.1. Producing.- 4.2. Production Cycles.- Notes Chapter 4.- 5. At the Roots of Uncertainty.- 5.1. Risk, Uncertainty and the Individual.- 5.2. A Dialogue: Founding the Secretariat for Uncertainty.- Notes Chapter 5.