Provocation 2013. The lawful and the unique. Economics avoids the unique.

Science has taken the view that things that can be made into “laws” are worthy of science. Unique events not so.

Mary is standing by herself on the livingroom floor. Newton’s F=MA tells us how much she weighs.

But Mary sees  Jane’s dropped handkerchief, which suggests a drama. 

Economics deals with things like the first but ignores (as unscientific) things like the second.  Bt real life, including economic life is vastly more made up of events  like the second. This is important for climate change discussions. Economics talks easily about shifting energy source from fossil to wind and solar but does not discuss how Harry will need to get rid of the family’s gas heater an replace it with electric. Who pays? How many such heaters have to be made? How long will it take?

If science was  interested in the world  it would explore both kinds of events. In that sense science is not scientific but ideological.