Toppling Western and Eastern Economics: Chan Economics (Serialization Preface)
2006/7/19 21:19:05
Preface
Once upon a time, the ether was also common sense, and once something becomes common sense, it often becomes highly suspect. Behind common sense is actually the trap of ideology — once something becomes ideologized, it becomes as industry-standardized as those peculiar sounds in certain special establishments on certain special occasions. When the ideologized sounds of Western economics become the only sounds, just as the economics of the former Eastern bloc once did, everything collapses into these industry-standardized moans.
One standard Western economics ideology is the so-called "economic man" hypothesis. Even those who refute this hypothesis produce nothing more than resonant, isomorphic sounds within the same moaning, just like the laughable farce of replacing the "economic man" with the "social man." If replacing the economic man with the social man could transport you from the West to the East, then this East would be as gaseous as the flatulence of a cow flying through the sky.
In an era where structuralism has already become deconstructionist garbage, the pre-structuralist economic man or social man hypothesis can actually become a standard ideological moan — the garbage nature of both Eastern and Western economics is as garbage as the sexuality of those industry-standardized moans. As for tricks like demand, supply, and equilibrium — besides satisfying the urge to show off pre-20th-century mathematical thinking through trivial details at a masturbatory level, they can of course also earn one some food money, and then the "shouting beast" shouts and sells its way into a "professorship."
Just as physics based on the ether was nothing but a form of theological masturbation, Eastern and Western economics stuffed with ether-like concepts are nothing but the masturbatory fantasies of a modern theology. Only physics built upon observable foundations has escaped the domain of theology, and the same applies to economics. Just as the constancy of the speed of light is foundational to special relativity, and the equivalence of the two types of mass is foundational to general relativity, the foundational assumptions of economics must also have a basis that is observable in reality. This basis must hold at every point within the domain of economics — without this, economics has nothing to do with science and is nothing but the industry-standardized moans of ideology.
So what exactly is economics? Stripping away all common-sense theological concepts, economics is simply a discipline that studies sets endowed with the operation of "exchange." Of course, this is just an abstract theoretical statement — just as M-theory can be seen as a combinatorial mathematical model studying four-dimensional and seven-dimensional spaces, where certain mathematical structures represent certain types of particles, economics works the same way. And the criterion for establishing a new theory is actually quite clear: it must be able to encompass the domain and conclusions of the old theory, and must be able to point out the deficiencies of the old theory and the theoretical threads that led to those deficiencies. Of course, a good theory must have systematicity — if a theory consists of many logically unrelated parts, it is certainly a bad theory.
Obviously, the above requirements for new theories and good theories are also the demands placed upon Chan Economics. Since we aim to topple both Eastern and Western economics, we must naturally encompass the domains and conclusions of both from a theoretical standpoint, and point out the deficiencies of both and their root causes. Since this book unfolds logically from its logical starting point, for convenience of exposition many conclusions will not note whether they have appeared in previous economic theories — such comparative work is a topic for future economic historians, and there's no need to steal their bread. Of course, those who already have a clear grasp of the old economic theories and their logical relations will naturally understand at a glance — no need to waste words on those who already know. At every critical, necessary juncture of the theoretical development, critiques of relevant Eastern and Western economics will naturally unfold. This interspersed style of narrative and commentary is what you will see, just as you will immediately see the theoretical development of Chan Economics.
(To be continued)
缠中说禅 2006/7/19 22:18:46
The main text naturally follows the preface — what's the rush?